Can you imagine walking into a popular Las Vegas, Nevada casino and seeing no poker dealers, chips, or cards? Well if this seems hard to believe, you may be in for a big surprise. The Vegas based casino Excalibur is now testing with this new ground-breaking idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Owners from the casino are going to equip the areas with 12 digital 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 Sin City. The business already has 230 machines around the world, with the biggest located in Casino du Montreal (a total of 25 machines were installed in this Canadian casino hotel).
So what are the negatives of this makeover? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new places to work. Some of these dealers have been working at the casino hotel since its opening in 1990. Todd DeRemer, Excalibur’s Vice President of Casino Operations, says that the poker dealers will be offered other dealer careers in the same casino.
According to DeRemer, the alteration is being made to give rookie players a chance to play this popular game without feeling intimidated. He had already played these new machines before deciding upon the renovation. “It’s not intimidating”, he says, “We think that aspect will bring back the business”.
The better machines will allow the players to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen televisions, which are located in the core of the table, will illustrate each table’s community cards, gambler’s stakes and the pot.

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