Posted under Poker
Can you envision walking into a famous Vegas casino hotel and seeing no dealers, chips, or poker cards? Well if this seems hard to believe, you may be in for a big surprise. The Las Vegas, Nevada based hotel Excalibur is now testing with this new revolutionary idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Officials from the casino hotel are going to equip the poker rooms with 12 computer machines for a six-month trial period.
The North-Carolina based industry PokerTek is in charge of the electronic machines, which are revolutionizing the way poker will be played in Las Vegas, Nevada. The enterprise already has 230 machines around the world, with the biggest located in Casino du Montreal (a total of 25 computers were installed in this Canadian hotel).
So what are the negatives of this alteration? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new jobs. Some of these dealers have been laboring at the casino since its opening in 1990. Todd DeRemer, Excalibur’s Vice President of Casino Operations, says that the poker dealers will be offered other dealer employment in the same hotel.
According to DeRemer, the alteration is being made to give rookie gamblers a chance to play this popular game without feeling intimidated. He had already played these new machines before deciding upon the change. “It’s not overpowering”, he says, “We think that portion will bring back the gamblers”.
The superior computers will allow the customers to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen televisions, which are located in the hub of the table, will illustrate each table’s community cards, gambler’s stakes and the pot.