Mike Kuhn is a gambling man. Give him a deck of cards, a table and throw in a handful of friends, and he says the gaming sessions could go on for hours.

“I’ve been a card player all my life,” the 54-year-old Kuhn says.

In 1998, Kuhn made one of the biggest gambles of his life. That year, he and several business partners decided to get into the high-stakes world of high-tech gaming by establishing DigiDeal Corporation. The company had the seemingly far-fetched goal of building a six-seat, electronic blackjack table to compete in an industry dominated by felt-covered tables and paper cards.

The Spokane Valley-based company since has invented, designed, prototyped and delivered dozens of products that mimic traditional card games.

“Our main goal was to eliminate the cards,” says Kuhn, president and CEO of DigiDeal. “When we first started, we went to some of the gaming experts in the industry, and we were told: number one, we will never get patent protection on this platform; number two, it will probably never get approved as a gaming device; and number three, chances are that the public won’t play it. We have since learned that that’s not the case.”

Ten years later, Kuhn and company are going strong, and business is booming. DigiDeal holds about 25 game patents with another 30 pending. The company recently partnered with International Game Technology, the world’s largest maker of slot machines, to manufacture, distribute and promote sales of DigiDeal tables worldwide. Also, a 22,000 square-foot expansion of its headquarters complex, located at 5207 E. Third and visible from Interstate 90, is almost complete. The new three-story office sits across from the company’s current quarters and will house administration and software engineers, while the company’s original home will become the prototyping headquarters for mechanical and electrical engineers.

When it comes to DigiDeal’s future, the company’s success is a bet with favorable odds. With sales expected to exceed $10 million this year, Kuhn says the company has been dealt a hot hand that’s not about to cool anytime soon.

“We’re looking at putting out 500 tables (in the upcoming 12 months), whereas it’s taken us 10 years to put out 800,” he says. “We think we’re just finally getting to the commercialization of our products. We believe we’re just on the cusp of it taking off.”

Not bad for a business that started with a few like-minded friends who ended up dragging the gambling industry into the 21st century.