Fair Trade Gaming Corporation had its start in 1993 when owner Fernando Terminel launched Fair Trade Marketing with A-Tension, an innovative board game featuring a dice odds chart that helps players form a strategy to defeat their opponents.

After Terminel paced the product on the market and acquired the national and international patents, he captured the attention of game aficionados with a front page article on the Tahoe Daily Tribune, a business article in the same paper, and centerfold articles in Deal Magazines and Harveygram. Terminel's effective PR earned the game a spot on the shelves of Payless Drug Stores and gift shops throughout the Lake Tahoe basin; one gift shop sold out of the game four days after it received its first shipment. Terminel is currently developing a CD version of the game.

After Harveys Resort Hotel & Casino sponsored Terminel, the Nevada Gaining Commission approved Double Dare 2 1, and Terminel applied his determination to targeting game directors, general managers and CEO's of all Nevada casinos. At the same time, Terminel observed customers and dealers playing Double Dare 21 and received valuable input. This input inspired him to turn the game's initial strategy into a springboard for a new and improved game. Consequently, Terminel split Double Dare 21 into Blackjack Dare Any Pair 21 and Blackjack Field Gold 21. This split version offers the best of the original game while incorporating new and attractive betting options that will appeal to casino customers and gaming operators alike. For example, because customers are obsessed with the pursuit of the elusive blackjack, Terminel changed the betting structure so that players can bet and win on Any Pair with a blackjack bonus.

One aspect that remained the same as the original Double Dare 21 is the fact that players can win on a pair, an important 'customer selling point. The game is based on the belief that everyone deserves extra for a pair, even in blackjack. As Terminel knows from his vast experience as a games dealer, blackjack players frequently complain that a pair will not earn them a prize. Fair Trade Gaming's Dare Any Pair 21 addresses this complaint and gives the customers what they've been asking for all along.

In addition, Fair Trade Gaming dressed up Dare Any Pair's slogan: "Everyone Deserves Extra for a Dare" and transformed Dare Any Field into Field Gold 21 to generate player excitement. Furthermore, Terminel simplified the games' instructions so that dealers and customers can clearly understand the benefits behind these exciting new sidebets.

Another figure that must be thrown into the equation is the company's most promising venture yet, a new game called "Pokerat." One attention getting feature of Pokerat is the fact that casino operators will not have to purchase the expensive mechanical devices usually seen with a progressive game. In addition, Pokerat fits any standard blackjack table, is three times faster than any game on the floor, produces twice the revenue for casinos on the sidebet, and is the easiest of all poker games to deal, explain and understand. Pokerat is twice as fast as Caribbean Stud and Let it Ride,, has twice the progressive bets as those two popular games and is, offered to the casino for one half the price. Once Fair Trade Gaming launches a slot machine spin-off of the table game Pokerat, the potential exists for the company to generate an even greater profit.

Fair Trade Gaining is one step ahead of other similar companies in the field because of its extremely competitive pricing, enticing casinos to include its games on the floor. In the words of the company's promotional materials, the games are part of a casino's profits, not costs.

This pricing strategy carries over into all Fair Trade Gaming's projects, including Dare Any Pair, Field Gold 2 1, and Pokerat. Terminel will also continue to develop ideas for family board games and entertainment that will also fall into his competitive pricing strategy.

To bring his creations to reality, Terminel believes in tapping into knowledgeable resources available to him. In creating Blackjack Field Gold 21, Dare Any Pair and Pokerat, he worked with respected statisticians to compute the odds of the games. Dr. John M. Gwynn, Jr., professor of computer science at California State University, Sacramento, not only helped develop the initial odds for Double Dare 21, but also determined that card counters could not count the pair bets. Furthermore, according to 4 Gwynn, any advantage a counter could obtain from counting what is now Field Gold 21 is sufficiently less than the advantage obtained by counting blackjack.

Terminel also works with other specialists to obtain a well-rounded field of expertise. Gaining suppliers designed the table layouts, Internet specialists created the company's website and a professional writer penned the press releases, business plan and other written material. Terminel combines these external resources with his own marketing savvy, promoting his business at the International Gaming Business Exposition & World Gaming Trade Show in Las Vegas and at the International Toy Fair Trade Show in New York. He also maintains an extensive database of casino industry personnel.

Through the contacts the company has made via web site referrals and trade shows, Terminel plans to take his company one step further by developing the game ideas of other inventors and bringing them into reality. His services will include every aspect of marketing and promoting a new game while offering the inventor a percentage of the profits.

In line with this all-encompassing strategy, in 1998, Terminel incorporated his business under the new name Fair Trade Gaming Corporation.

With casinos sprouting up throughout the country and the world, and through the wide range of contacts available through the Internet and trade shows, Terminel expects Fair Trade Gaming Corporation to not only compete in the United States, but to also become an important player in the global market.