Fortune Entertainment Corp. - OTC:BB FETG. After some reorganization, the Company is on the right track. I'm sure this one is just about ready to go. Here's a newspaper article by the president. Some history, some information, etc...Note: The mention of an initial order for a large number of machines appears to be right around the corner.
Monday, September 6, 1999
Gaming company draws Maine
into world of cyberspace poker
How it works
By ERIC BLOM, Staff Writer
¸ Copyright 1999 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
BIDDEFORD ? William Danton is trying to
bring a little taste of casino life to corner
stores and Internet sites nationwide. He also
hopes to play a hand in the casino business.
His company, Fortune Entertainment Corp., is
poised to distribute its Fortune Tournament
Poker video game in Maine and other states.
The game will be played in casinos with cash
bets, and for prizes via the Internet and in
local shops on a no-purchase-necessary basis.
Fortune Entertainment will run its first test of
an Internet game with Mainecoast.net, a
Biddeford-based Internet provider, later this
month. The company's 4,000 customers will
compete for prizes by playing poker against
one another online, for free.
Other Maine residents will then get a chance
to play the game, either by buying a product
sold through the contest's Internet site or by
mailing in a post card. Again, prizes such as
expenses-paid trips and restaurant gift
certificates will be offered.
Also, Fortune Entertainment has reached
agreements to place video poker machines at
some Maine stores, Danton said. People who
buy a certain amount of merchandise, or who
send in a post card, will receive a token to
play the game. Danton declined to identify the
participating merchants.
Finally, the company has reached an
agreement with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Indians in Minnesota for testing its machines.
That agreement should lead to a deal this
month for the introduction of 400 machines
into the tribe's casinos, Danton said.
"We have many venues we can put our
products into," Danton said.
The business plan is an ambitious attempt at
a gaming comeback for Danton, an Old
Orchard Beach businessman and former town
councilor who worked to bring video poker
machines to Maine in 1994.
The machines ? along with their new
machine-less counterparts on the Internet ?
allow players to compete against one another,
tournament style. Each player receives an
electronic deck of cards and tries to score as
many points as possible, by getting good
poker hands, in a single shuffle of the deck.
The top point collector receives a prize.
State officials banned the machines in 1994,
saying they violated gambling laws. Danton
argued that the game did not constitute
illegal gambling because it was a game of
skill, not a game of chance. He took the state
to court, and won when Justice Roland Cole
ruled the game to be one of skill ? similar to
a golf or bowling tournament ? rather than
one of chance.
Then, in 1996, the Maine Legislature changed
the law to specifically prohibit prize-awarding
video games such as the one Danton offered,
when the players paid something for a chance
to win. A petition drive to reinstate the games
never got off the ground.
Still, the experience did not kill the company,
and its operation was purchased in 1997 by
Fortune Entertainment. Fortune is publicly
traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board
under the symbol FETG.
In December 1998, Danton became president
and chief executive officer of Fortune. Since
then, he has been pursuing sales in a huge
potential market.
Legal gambling produced $54.3 billion in
revenue across the United States last year,
according to Sebastian Sinclair, a Limerick
resident who works as an analyst with
Christian Capitol Advisors in New York City.
In addition to that, Fortune is chasing another
enormous market: no-purchase-necessary
games such as Pepsi's Star Wars promotion
and McDonald's Monopoly contest. Those
contests involve looking for particular game
pieces in hopes of winning cash.
The psychological dynamic is similar for game
players at casinos and corner fast-food
restaurants, said William Gayton, a professor
of psychology at the University of Southern
Maine.
"It's fun," Gayton said. "It can be stimulating,
especially in times of boredom. It offers
instant satisfaction of desire."
That makes it a growth market, now that such
games are becoming more socially acceptable
than in the past.
For the gambling portion of its operation,
Fortune Entertainment expects to focus
primarily on Indian-run casinos, where
regulatory approvals are easier to achieve.
The ruling that the game is one of skill, rather
than chance, should facilitate those approvals
in many states.
Casino operators should prove interested in
the machines for a variety of reasons, Danton
said.
Players, rather than the house, front the prize
money. That's an advantage for the casino
over traditional slot machines, where big
payoffs can happen before revenue is
generated.
Also, many of Fortune Entertainment's
machines can be networked together,
increasing the size of the pots and player
interest.
Falling computer prices are making the
machines more affordable. A few years ago,
customers would have had to spend a couple
million dollars to set up this system. Now it
can be done for $50,000, Danton said.
"Seven years ago," when Danton purchased
the rights to the patented game technology,
he said, "we didn't have the Internet, Pentium
processors, encryption, none of that."
Also, this game is likely to be more popular
than traditional video poker, Danton said, and
that would make the machines more attractive
to casino customers.
"You aren't playing against the machine, which
is obviously rigged for you to lose over time,"
he said. "Ours is competitive."
Fortune Entertainment has purchased a stake
in Sega Gaming Technology to use as a
distributor of its game. And Fortune is moving
ahead on other tracks, such as the
Internet-based contests and in-store
promotional games.
"What they are doing is something that's
innovative, even in the gaming industry," said
Sue Schneider, president and chief executive
officer of The River City Group, which
publishes Interactive Gaming News magazine
from St. Louis, Missouri.
Many American gaming companies have been
stymied in their effort to go online, even as
the business is exploding overseas, she said.
"Traditional gaming companies in the United
States have been relegated to the sidelines,"
she said.
Several states have determined that Internet
gambling is illegal, and federal legislation is
pending to outlaw it nationwide.
"You won't find many (online gambling
operations) located in the United States,
because if they do they run the risk of going
to jail," Sinclair said. Foreign companies are
getting almost all of a market that is likely to
hit $1 billion in revenue this year, up from
$651 million in 1998, he said.
So, efforts such as Fortune's
no-purchase-necessary tournaments are
important if American gaming companies are
to get involved online.
This particular game should be appealing to
players and, by extension, to people trying to
use tournament poker as a marketing tool,
said Shawn Beaudoin, a partner in
Mainecoast.net.
"The neat thing, as I understand it, is that it
is actually a skill-based entertainment game,"
he said. "It's not just random, like a
McDonald's game."
Results from the Mainecoast.net contest, and
similar tests in three other states, will be
used in marketing the game nationwide,
Danton said.
He does not expect the state to outlaw the
no-purchase-necessary game here, as it did
with his earlier attempt to bring video poker
to Maine.
"If they want to shut down the site, they've
got to do it to everybody: McDonald's, Taco
Bell, Pepsi . . . , "he said. And now, as part of
a public company, he has the resources to
fight for his game, Danton said.
"Before, I was kind of vulnerable," he said.
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¸ 1999 Blethen
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