Richard N. Velotta
VEGAS INC Coverage
Rupert Boneham is playing "Survivor" again. But this time, the stakes are much higher and his success could greatly benefit Southern Nevada.
Boneham, the shaggy, tie-dye-wearing fan favorite of the long-running CBS reality series, sat patiently through nearly three hours of testimony on other business being conducted by the five-member Nevada Gaming Commission before he got the chance to present his new game, “Rupert’s Island Draw,” for final approval.
Rupert Boneham
It only took about five minutes for him and his consultant to run through how the game is played and talk about how it performed during its field trial at downtown Las Vegas’ Golden Nugget. Many of the questions he got were from commissioners who wanted to know more about his time on the Pearl Islands, playing "Survivor," not about whether gamblers had any significant trouble catching on to “Rupert’s Island Draw.”
When it came time to vote, commissioners gave Boneham what he wanted—unanimous approval. When that vote was recorded, Boneham began playing "Survivor" again because as most game inventors will tell you, getting a game approved is the easy part. The real challenge is persuading casino floor executives to give the game a shot on floors dominated by ultrapopular blackjack, roulette and craps tables. Can “Rupert’s Island Draw” survive?
Boneham, as real and gregarious as he was on television, was psyched about his game’s approval.
“But this is just the start,” he says in his gravelly baritone voice, “because what I want to do is get this game in other casinos, and 20 percent off the top will go to the foundation.”
The foundation is Rupert’s Kids, a charity that helps at-risk young adults too old for the social service system acquire vocational skills. You can read more about it at www.rupertskids.org.
Boneham said he hatched the idea to finance the charity during the long hours on the island in the South Pacific. He tore up a catalog and made the pages into playing cards, developing the game’s basic concept.
As a participant on "Survivor All Stars" in 2004, Boneham won “All-American tribal council” as the series’ favorite player and a $1 million prize. That was the financing he needed to formally develop the game and apply for licensing.
“I thought, ‘Where should I be licensed?’ and there was no doubt in my mind that I needed to be licensed here and for the game to be played in Las Vegas, Nevada,” he says. “Now that it’s licensed, I hope to get some exposure on CBS’ morning show. Think of it. I can tell America that ‘Rupert’s Island Draw,’ which helps fund Rupert’s Kids is being played exclusively in downtown Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget.”
Right after the game was licensed, he began researching where he could open a bank account for a new branch of Rupert’s Kids in Las Vegas. In mid-July, he hopes to have a big public kickoff at the Golden Nugget with the new Mayor Goodman.
Boneham strongly believes the foundation should be run without seeking tax dollars, a strategy many Nevadans will love.
The end game is to provide the skills and education to keep troubled youth on a path of self-sufficiency and productivity and out of prisons.
“If it costs $50,000 to keep one of these kids in prison and it costs $15,000 a year to train them and get them turned around, I figure I’ve got about three years to do it,” he says. “And once they’re out, they’re productive members of society and they can give back.”
Will the city’s casinos embrace Boneham’s dream? Would they look at the big picture and view the game as a philanthropic opportunity?
Skeptics will say no, the casino isn’t going to keep a game on the floor if it doesn’t make money. While Boneham has promised to spend a lot more of his time in Las Vegas, away from his home and family in Indianapolis, it would take a lot of work and public appearances to build interest in a game competing with blackjack’s decades-long history of popularity.
Players like their games simple and “Rupert’s Island Draw” is complicated. It has 16, 24-card decks, card values that become zero once they add up to more than 12 and “pushes” that give money back to players unless they tie at the value of 7. Is that complicated enough?
The bottom line is: Will a game invented by the most popular "Survivor" survive?