UNLV International Gaming Institute was deeply saddened to learn of the recent passing of Dr. Mark Yoseloff, a gaming innovation icon and founding executive director of the university’s Center for Gaming Innovation. 

Following a long and decorated career as an inventor, entrepreneur, and executive, Dr. Yoseloff moved to Nevada and turned his incredible talents to Las Vegas’ gaming manufacturing industry. In 1997, he was appointed chairman and CEO of Shuffle Master, a role he held for more than a decade.  

As a former educator – he taught for a time at both Princeton and Arizona State – Dr. Yoseloff had a passion for teaching and in 2012, following his time at Shuffle Master, he approached the executive director of UNLV’s International Gaming Institute with a bold proposition. The future of gaming requires constant innovation, and he saw a need to introduce an educational pathway in game development. 

Dr. Yoseloff himself held more than 60 U.S. patents, and he recognized that true preparation for the industry required more than exposure to theory. It needed to include the opportunity to develop and create. He envisioned a classroom where students would be challenged to design, develop, and refine original gaming concepts with real commercial potential. The next year, in 2013, he brought that vision to life by teaching the inaugural Gaming Innovation course at UNLV. 

Dr. Yoseloff invested not only his expertise, but his time and personal commitment, mentoring students as they worked to turn their own ideas into viable products. What began as a single course soon became something much larger. With support from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the class was formally established as the highly prolific Center for Gaming Innovation at UNLV International Gaming Institute in 2014. Dr. Yoseloff served as the center’s inaugural executive director, a position he held until 2020. 

Center for Gaming Innovation has become a patent powerhouse, with numerous games and products designed by UNLV students successfully commercialized and launched. The center’s current director, Dr. Daniel Sahl, remarked that the success of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Innovation rests on Dr. Yoseloff’s generosity and commitment to the industry and the community.  

“As a professor, Dr. Yoseloff brought unmatched expertise, and passion to the classroom.  He will be remembered for his willingness to share his talent and knowledge to future generations of creators and leaders in our industry,” Dr. Sahl said. 

As a CEO, a prolific inventor, and a member of the American Gaming Association’s Hall of Fame, Dr. Yoseloff was a giant in the industry. Despite his monumental success in business, he was at his core a teacher and mentor. That was clear time and time again during his time at UNLV. 

As UNLV professor and former IGI executive director Dr. Bo Bernhard shared, “When he took the reins of his class at UNLV you could see that this was the place he was happiest. He would bounce from table to table, fascinated by our UNLV students' ideas, amazed at their brilliance, and then helped them with the math (as he had a unique knack to help them achieve that really, really hard part).” 

UNLV IGI and Center for Gaming Innovation are deeply appreciative of Dr. Yoseloff’s immeasurable contributions to UNLV, our students, and to the gaming industry at large. We share our condolences with Dr. Yoseloff’s wife, Patricia, their children, and the entire Yoseloff family.