Can you imagine walking into a famous Sin City hotel and seeing no poker dealers, chips, or cards? Well if this seems not easy to believe, you may be in for a big shock. The Sin City based casino Excalibur is now experimenting with this new radical idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Executives from the casino are going to equip the poker rooms with 12 automated machines for a six-month trial period.
The North-Carolina based enterprise PokerTek is in charge of the computer machines, which are reinventing the way poker will be played in Vegas. The company already has 230 computers around the world, with the biggest located in Casino du Montreal (a total of 25 computers were installed in this Canadian casino).
So what are the negatives of this alteration? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new careers. Some of these dealers have been functioning at the 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 places to work in the same hotel.
According to DeRemer, the renovation is being made to give rookie poker enthusiasts a chance to play this popular game without feeling intimidated. He had already played these new machines before deciding upon the transformation. “It’s not overpowering”, he says, “We think that feature will bring back the customers”.
The better computers will allow the customers to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen tv’s, 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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