And for My Next Trick … Turning Penn & Teller into a Casino Table Game

^{The Penn & Teller casino game (for now exclusively at the Rio) is still a little too new for us to assess its magical appeal. (Image: courtesy of KSNV)} 

In a casino, there is a menagerie of games that have some special themes to them. Iconic movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Gladiator, Ghostbusters, and Anchorman have earned the slot machine treatment in casinos, but there has not been a table game that was themed around a movie or a celebrity. Until now …

Introducing Penn & Teller Casino Monte

In a ceremony last week at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, company officials, game creators from Adventura Gaming, and the subject of the game themselves, Penn and the Teller, introduced the new table game. The game, called Penn & Teller Casino Monte, will be spread at the Rio as the first table game based on celebrities. That it is based on true icons of the Las Vegas scene only adds to the uniqueness of the game. 

According to The Blast’s Melanie VanDerveer, Penn Jillette was nearly shocked into a similar silence that afflicts his longtime magical partner, Teller. “It’s just crazy,” VanDerveer quotes Penn as stating during the ceremonies. “We’ve had a slot machine, but a lot of people have slot machines. This is the first time they’ve ever done a table game.” 

Penn & Teller were also intricately involved in the development of the game. “We played it before we agreed to the whole thing,” Penn said to VanDerveer. “In order to do a game that people really enjoy and that is fair and everything, the mathematics are very advanced.”

Combining Dice and Cards into One Game

The table itself is laid out very much like a blackjack table, with five different betting areas for the players to take. In front of each player are the letters P, the ampersand (&), and T. Players place their bet on one of the three letters which they believe will be the largest of the three community cards, which will be laid down under the corresponding letter in front of the dealer (there is an additional “Full Monte” side bet that can be made, but we’ll pass that for right now). 

After the first round of betting is complete, the dealer will shake a die in a cup and reveal it to the table. If the die is a one or two, the dealer draws a single card and places it on the “P” (or “Penn”) position. If the die is three or four, it will go on the ampersand (&) position. Finally, if the die is a five or a six, then the card is placed on the “T” (or “Teller”) position. 

Now the action begins. 

After the card has been placed, players can make a raise anywhere between one and three times their original bet or leave their original play as the only action. After this round of betting, two more cards are drawn to cover whichever community slots are uncovered. 

If the player’s card is the highest of the three, they win and the payout is 1:1. If the player’s card and one other card on the other two spots tie for the highest card, both win at a 1:1 payout. Should all three cards be the same, all hands win and an initial bet is paid out at 3:1 and a raise at 1:1 (this is where the “Full Monty” comes into play with the results of the three card board – think the “Pair Plus” bet in Three Card Poker). 

The game bears some similarities to the classic street con “Three Card Monte,” where a player is shown two Aces and a Queen and the player must pick the Queen out of a three-card lineup. 

The trick to the game is that, once the player is shown the Queen, it can never come up; the dealer will palm the card and you’re actually going against three Aces instead of the setup you think is in play (this is why a three-card monte dealer will not show all three cards up at any time). Along with putting Penn & Teller on the game, Adventura Gaming has added some twists to make it more appealing for Las Vegas gamblers. 

The new table game featuring the longtime Las Vegas performers is only one of the celebrations that feature Penn & Teller. With their 25^th year at the Rio approaching, Penn & Teller are being lauded for their act, which Penn cites as the longest-running headliner act in Vegas history. It is also a way for the Rio to continue its improvements, which began once Dreamscape Companies took over the property from Caesars Entertainment in late 2023.