Is Gemaco still around and actively making cards? Wikipedia suggests they were taken over by GPI in 2014, who was of course then bought out by Angel back in 2019. But the only store I can find that claims to carry any Gemaco products is Kardwell, and we all know that they tend to be full of BS. I've seen some old used vintage Gemaco setups listed on eBay, but nothing that looks like it would've been manufactured within the past 5-10 years. And a simple search of PCF reveals lots of wanted ads in the Classifieds looking for Gemaco cards over the past few years, almost all of which have gone unanswered.
Perhaps most interestingly, it sure looks like they have an active website at https://www.gemacocard.com. But this website lists them as being based out of Sheridan Wyoming, whereas historically Gemaco was based out of Blue Springs Missouri. So I'm not 1,000% convinced that this is even the same company... it could be someone pretending to be them (kind of like how www.kem.com actually takes you to a Kardwell website which is shady AF).
My guess, but I admit that it is indeed just a guess, is that Angel forced Gemaco to withdraw from the consumer market and deal only with casinos... just like they did with Paulson. Is that correct? That would certainly explain why there's no record of the brand having been discontinued at any point, and yet their products just aren't available on the open market nowadays. I'm just curious because I think Gemaco, Grimaud, and Trefl are among the only major card manufacturers that I haven't been able to try out yet. I really wanted to try out a setup of Gemaco's Superflex cards in particular, since multiple PCFers have mentioned them as being among their favorites. Any info would be most appreciated!
Perhaps most interestingly, it sure looks like they have an active website at https://www.gemacocard.com. But this website lists them as being based out of Sheridan Wyoming, whereas historically Gemaco was based out of Blue Springs Missouri. So I'm not 1,000% convinced that this is even the same company... it could be someone pretending to be them (kind of like how www.kem.com actually takes you to a Kardwell website which is shady AF).
My guess, but I admit that it is indeed just a guess, is that Angel forced Gemaco to withdraw from the consumer market and deal only with casinos... just like they did with Paulson. Is that correct? That would certainly explain why there's no record of the brand having been discontinued at any point, and yet their products just aren't available on the open market nowadays. I'm just curious because I think Gemaco, Grimaud, and Trefl are among the only major card manufacturers that I haven't been able to try out yet. I really wanted to try out a setup of Gemaco's Superflex cards in particular, since multiple PCFers have mentioned them as being among their favorites. Any info would be most appreciated!
