Can you envision walking into a famous Las Vegas hotel and seeing no poker dealers, chips, or poker cards? Well if this seems difficult to believe, you may be in for a big shock. The Vegas based casino Excalibur is now experimenting with this new ground-breaking idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Officials from the casino hotel are going to equip the game rooms with 12 electronic machines for a six-month trial period.
The North-Carolina based business PokerTek is in charge of the computer machines, which are revolutionizing the way poker will be played in Sin City. The enterprise already has 230 computers 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 side-effects of this transformation? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new employment. Some of these dealers have been functioning 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 hotel.
According to DeRemer, the makeover 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 alteration. “It’s not overwhelming”, he says, “We think that element will bring back the gamblers”.
The superior machines will allow the gamblers to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen monitors, which are located in the center of the table, will display each table’s community cards, gambler’s stakes and the pot.

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