Can you envision walking into a famous Vegas casino 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 Vegas based hotel Excalibur is now testing with this new radical idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Owners from the casino hotel are going to equip the rooms with 12 electronic machines for a six-month trial period.

The North-Carolina based industry PokerTek is in charge of the computer machines, which are reinventing the way poker will be played in Las Vegas. The business 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 casino).

So what are the side-effects of this transformation? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new places to work. 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 jobs in the same casino.

According to DeRemer, the alteration is being made to give rookie poker 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 element will bring back the gamblers”.

The new computers will allow the gamblers to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen monitors, which are located in the core of the table, will illustrate each table’s community cards, poker player’s stakes and the pot.

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