Mark Yoseloff, Chairman & CEO, Increases Ownership Interest in Shuffle

    Business Editors

    LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2005--Shuffle Master, Inc. (NASDAQ National Market: SHFL) today announced that Dr. Mark Yoseloff, the company's Chairman and CEO, will be exercising and holding approximately 100,000 incentive options, thus increasing Dr. Yoseloff's ownership of Shuffle Master shares to about 435,000. Dr. Yoseloff's ownership of Shuffle Master shares makes him the largest single individual shareholder in the Company.
    The Company also announced that Dr. Yoseloff has adopted a 10b5-1 trading plan to exercise and sell, based on a target share price, up to 200,000 other options and shares of Dr. Yoseloff's total option and share holdings, primarily for tax planning purposes related to the 100,000 share exercise and hold. The number of shares that Dr. Yoseloff may be exercising and then selling represent approximately 15% of his total holdings in the Company.
    Mark Yoseloff, the Company's CEO and Chairman commented, "Under our Corporate Governance guidelines, a 10b5-1 Sales Plan, which allows for the orderly sale of shares at specified times and prices, is required for members of senior management in order to eliminate any opportunistic selling. In accordance with such plan, I am exercising and selling up to 200,000 stock options, as well as exercising an additional approximately 100,000 options with the intent to hold the resulting acquired shares. This is an automatic plan and does not reflect any lack of optimism on my part regarding the Company. In fact, my holdings of Shuffle Master common stock still represent the majority of my net worth."
    Rule 10b5-1 allows corporate insiders to establish prearranged written plans to buy or sell a specified number of shares of company stock over a predetermined period of time. Insiders may adopt such plans when they are not in possession of material inside information in order to gradually change their investment portfolio to minimize market effect of stock sales or purchases by spreading them out over an extended period of time and to avoid concerns about initiating stock transactions while in possession of material nonpublic information.
    Shuffle Master, Inc. is a gaming supply company specializing in providing its casino customers Utility Products, including automatic card shufflers, to improve their productivity and security, and Entertainment Products, including proprietary table games and Table Master(TM) games to expand their gaming entertainment content. The Company is included in the S&P Smallcap 600 Index. Information about the Company and its products can be found on the Internet at www.shufflemaster.com.

    This release contains forward-looking statements that are based on management's current beliefs and expectations about future events, as well as on assumptions made by and information available to management. The Company considers such statements to be made under the safe harbor created by the federal securities laws to which it is subject, and assumes no obligation to update or supplement such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, but are not limited to, the following: changes in the level of consumer or commercial acceptance of the Company's existing products and new products as introduced; advances by competitors; acceleration and/or deceleration of various product development, promotion and distribution schedules; product performance issues; higher than expected manufacturing, service, selling, administrative, product development, promotion and/or distribution costs; changes in the Company's business systems or in technologies affecting the Company's products or operations; reliance on strategic relationships with distributors and technology and manufacturing vendors; current and/or future litigation or claims; tax matters, including changes in tax legislation or assessments by taxing authorities; acquisitions or divestitures by the Company or its competitors of various product lines or businesses and, in particular, integration of businesses that the Company may acquire; changes to the Company's intellectual property portfolio, such as the issuance of new patents, new intellectual property licenses, loss of licenses, claims of infringement or invalidity of patents; regulatory and jurisdictional issues (e.g., technical requirements and changes, delays in obtaining necessary approvals, or changes in a jurisdiction's regulatory scheme or approach, etc.) involving the Company and its products specifically or the gaming industry in general; general and casino industry economic conditions; the financial health of the Company's casino and distributor customers, suppliers and distributors, both nationally and internationally; the Company's ability to meet its debt service obligations, including the Notes, and to refinance its indebtedness, which will depend on its future performance and other conditions or events and will be subject to many factors that are beyond the Company's control; and various risk related to the Company's customers' operations in countries outside the United States, including currency fluctuation risks, which could increase the volatility of the Company's results from such operations. Additional information on these and other risk factors that could potentially affect the Company's financial results may be found in documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's current reports on Form 8-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K.

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CONTACT: Investor Relations Advisors Tom Ryan, 203-222-9013 Fax: 203-222-9372 or Shuffle Master, Inc. Mark L. Yoseloff or Richard Baldwin, 702-897-7150 Fax: 702-270-5161

KEYWORD: NEVADA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ENTERTAINMENT GAMING SOURCE: Shuffle Master, Inc.

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