Chasing the Slot Glass Jackpot

^{IGT’s Double Diamond is a classic slot with a beautiful design that triggers nostalgic fondness for many players. (Image: Deja Vu Loft Casino)}

Slot machines, to some, are just pieces of machinery that give and take your money. Let’s face it, it's mostly the latter. 

To others like me, however, slot machines are so much more. They create feelings, evoke memories and symbolise a specific time and place in your life.  

Now, two friends and business partners, Stefania Haralambie and Andrei Pirvulescu, owners of Deja Vu Loft Casino, have found a unique way to bring casino memories into people’s homes through collectible slot glass. Their company's ultimate goal: one piece of slot glass in every American home.

I caught up with the pair of young entrepreneurs on a video call to their makeshift warehouse and design studio in Las Vegas to find out more about how one gets into the slot glass business, where they get their stock from, and what’s the appeal of their product. 

Vintage Slot Glass Seeds Planted

Though both Andrei and Stefi are from Romania, they hail from opposite sides of the country and didn’t know each other until they met in Las Vegas shortly after Andrei arrived in 2018.

“I visited Las Vegas when I was 10 years old with my parents and I was fascinated by the city and the casinos,” said Andrei, now 25. “All the big buildings, the lights, the clinking sounds and bells, just the whole environment amazed me.” 

Andrei said he asked his mom on the flight home back to Romania how he could work in a Las Vegas casino someday. She did some research and found out about UNLV’s casino gaming courses.

“I told all my friends at school that I was going to do it,” Andrei recalled. “Of course, none of them believed me, but nine years later, I did.”  

Not only did Andrei graduate from UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality with a degree in Gaming Management, but also he says he finished in the top 1% of his class. In fact, he impressed one of his professors so much that he is now an investor in the business. 

Stefania Haralambie is the artist behind Deja Vu’s vintage slot glass creations. (Photo: courtesy of Deja Vu Loft Casino)

Dreams on Hold?

Stefi, now 30, found her way to Las Vegas through her love of art, painting, and fashion design. She moved around from the east coast, to Delaware, New York and finally Las Vegas, where she set up a unique business hand-painting clothes for some prestigious clients. 

Stefi and Andrei (not to be confused with their famous name-sakes -- Las Vegas residents and tennis legends Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi) met by chance while Andrei was working as an intern for a casino gaming parts company.

Stefi, meanwhile, was looking to set up an antiques business. Andrei offered to help and eventually they found a spot close to the Palms casino. 

Andrei left his job at the casino supplier, and together they found success in the antique business almost immediately. A successful first nine months included growing a huge following on the ‘Whatnot’ selling app. 

But then, in September 2023, a freak flood hit Las Vegas, and wiped out their entire inventory -- including paintings, furniture, furnishings, and a 10,000 vinyl record collection. 

“We lost everything,” Stefi said. “The business had to close.” 

Andrei went back to his previous company and took a job selling gaming equipment parts. There he stumbled across thousands of old abandoned pieces of slot glass that were no longer in use. 

Offering to tap into their established audience on the Whatnot selling app, Andrei and Stefi started livestreaming slot glass auctions every Sunday. 

“Sometimes we streamed for up to 10 hours a day,” Stefi said. 

That was followed by 10 hours of carefully packaging up each fragile parcel, usually just finishing in time for the workforce to arrive at 7 am on Monday. 

“People were buying multiple products, giving them out as gifts or keeping them as collectibles and they kept asking us for more,” Stefi said.

The increasing demand for slot glass gave them the confidence needed to go out on their own and the business was born. They called it Deja Vu Loft Casino and is currently being run out of their homes and a rented garage. 

Deja Vu’s vintage slot machine glass products taps into a nostalgic desire for authentic casino history. (Photo: courtesy of Deja Vu Loft Casino

The Art of Vintage Slots

Clearly I’m not the only one who sees slots as more than just machinery. I’d go so far as to say that some slot machines are works of art. 

I’m not referring to the actual games that are housed inside the slot machines. I’m talking about the physical cabinet or gaming hardware that it sits in. 

A huge amount of time and research goes into designing the final product we see in the casino. Things like height, width, style, flat or curved, speakers in front or in the chair, dual or multi-screen, lighting, colours, plus all of the branding and livery that goes around it. 

If you look around any casino today, you’ll see games of all shapes and sizes, all competing against each other to catch your eye. While it is, of course, all a marketing ploy to get you to play, it is a result of years of research into what players find attractive, appealing and familiar.

It’s true that most modern slots are digital. But in the current environment often the cabinet remains on the casino floor and the software is simply reloaded with a new game when it launches. 

However, retro games cabinets were, and still are in some cases, fitted with actual branded glass promoting the slot. Plus, new games still have a plethora of vinyl wraps and branded decals that aren’t digitally replicable.

Luckily for Steffi and Andrei, there’s a big market for people, like me, who have some emotional attachment to slot machines. Not content with visiting casinos and playing slots, we want to have a piece of it in our homes. 

Casino collectibles is a big business reported to be worth billions of dollars each year. (Earlier this month Las Vegas hosted the largest casino collectibles show in the world.) 

Authentic Slot Glass Experience

Now, more than a year on since they started, Deja Vu Loft Casino are establishing themselves on an international scale. “We are branching out state by state in the US, with our biggest demand coming from California and Texas so far,” Stefi said. “We are also getting orders from the UK and other European countries such as Germany.” 

“We are continually buying stock and developing new products with the casino glass and other slot branding,” Andrei explained. Their products, which sell for anywhere between $69 and $199, can consist of anything from just the glass, to framed glass that lights up like it would in a casino, to clocks and drink trays. 

“It allows us to combine Stefi’s creativity and love of art and design with my love of gaming,” Andrei said. “We are about to launch a new product which is floor lamps made out of the spinning reel." 

The Deja Vu product line consists of only authentic, original slot glass pieces -- and they come with a certificate of authenticity. They have sniffed out some fakes before.

“You can tell when slot glass is genuine as it has an individual serial number on the back,” Stefi said, “and some game providers have branding on there, too.”

Something that has surprised and delighted these purveyors of casino culture has been the number of requests for personal engraving. Although a lot of the slot glass is purchased by businesses, such as interior designers and bizarrely a few butchers, many requests have more of a personal nature.

“We get asked to engrave birthday, anniversary and good luck messages to customers on the glass which is always really nice,” Stefi said. “One lady who has unfortunately lost her husband, has asked us if we can source the slot glass from a specific game that is in the background of her only wedding photo which we are desperate to find.” 

Popular items on sale at the moment include those related to poker, movies and horror themed slots. Branded slots such as Cleopatra, Wild Cherry, and Buffalo are also in demand, with a lot of rare items getting snapped up quickly. 

The second most popular Stefi and Andrei in Las Vegas have found a niche combining their passions for gaming and art. (Photo: courtesy of Deja Vu Loft Casino

Slot Glass Growth Trajectory

I asked the pair about future plans and if they’re worried that stock will run low with everything going digital these days.

“We know there is a lot more stock out there and we get approached by sellers now,” Andrei explained. He said Deja Vu acquired boxes full of slot glass and other casino equipment from the Tropicana before it was imploded in October 2024.

Andrei is quite excited about new products they’ll be releasing soon while catching the eyes of interior decorators.

“We are working on our first full casino-themed room for a customer in Texas,” Andrei said. “He has a 40ft x 30ft space and some old retro slots so we are helping him design a cool space to hang out with friends. It’s not a real casino but by the time it is finished it will look like one with branded signage, chips and dice too.”

Andrei said he still consults with his former professors (Dr. Anthony Lucas, Dr. Robert Rippee, and Prof. Scott Morrow, all highly respected figures in the casino and gaming industry) as Deja Vu grows. Both Andrei and Stefi consider former Las Vegas mayor of Las Vegas and gaming industry leader Jan Jones Blackhurst a mentor and supporter.

The pair have also linked up with casino slot influencer Brian Christopher by donating slot glass for one of his charity events with other potential partnerships in the pipeline.

Seeing these two business partners, surrounded by glass from vintage slot games from games spanning decades, I asked what their own favourites were. 

“I’m actually a poker player,” Andrei said. 

“I enjoy the Hot Stuff games,” added Stefi. “Andrei recently surprised me by finding some Hot Stuff slot glass and gave it to me as a gift.”