Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, LLC (EKG) announced that Michael Laubach and Robert (Bob) Luciano have been inducted into the EKG Slot Awards Hall of Fame Class of 2022. Both Michael and Bob will be honored in person at the 2022 EKG Slot Awards in Las Vegas on February 24.
Luciano is the fourth inductee to the hall under the Game Development category, while the late Laubach is the second inductee under the Slot Operations category.
“Once again our distinguished Board of Advisors has selected two outstanding individuals to be inducted into the EKG Slot Awards Hall of Fame,” said Todd Eilers, principal at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. “Both Michael and Bob have made significant contributions to the gaming industry and are well deserving of this honor.”
Laubach was born on November 28, 1954, in Merced, California. After a brief stint in the U.S. Army he started his gaming career at Harvey’s Casino in South Lake Tahoe in 1975 joining his father, Donald John Laubach, who also worked at Harvey’s in the slot department. After a short period, Laubach moved to Las Vegas and accepted a job at the Stardust as a slot floorman. He quickly moved up the ranks and was eventually promoted to director of slot operations. He then left the Stardust in early 1990s to open the slot department at the new Bull Whacker’s Casino in Blackhawk, Colorado.
After a couple years in Colorado, Laubach was contacted by his good friend Dominic Mezzetta and asked to open the Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Mississippi and serve as the casino’s vice president of slot operations. In 2001, he was recruited back go Boyd Gaming to open Delta Downs in Louisiana, then returned to Sam’s Town in Tunica to oversee the slot department. After a stint heading up slots at the Orleans, he formally moved to the corporate office for Boyd Gaming in 2019 as the corporate vice president of slot operations.
Laubach was an inaugural member of the EKG Slot Awards Board of Advisors and was a key contributor to the early success of the event. He died on August 9, 2021.
Luciano was born in 1958 in Morristown, New Jersey. He graduated from Drexel University in 1981 studying mechanical engineering. After graduating he moved to Reno, Nevada working as a project engineer at International Game Technology. He climbed his way up the ranks to vice president of advanced development before ultimately leaving IGT to found Sierra Design Group (SDG).
Luciano accomplishments while at the helm of SDG include developing systems technology that helped pave the way for many successful gaming operations in Native American jurisdictions, including California, Florida, and Washington, and creating unique gaming products such as Raining Diamonds slot machines that dispensed real diamond jewelry and the Auction Fever bonusing concept.
Luciano also was at the forefront of many technological innovations in gaming and systems at Bally Technologies. After Bally (then Alliance Gaming) purchased Sierra Design Group in 2004, Luciano also served as executive vice president and chief technology officer for Bally Technologies before suffering a serious stroke that required him to take a medical leave.
Prior to founding Sierra Design Group in 1996, Luciano was vice president of advanced engineering at IGT. He also previously held several engineering positions at a variety of non-gaming companies, including Soabar, a division of Avery International, and Mobil Oil.
Luciano has over 300 patents to his name, including various gaming technologies, golf technology, and pharmaceutical packaging. Some of Lucian’s key patents in the gaming industry were critical in commercializing ticket-in, ticket out technology (TITO), which is now the standard for casinos across the world.
