All the poker dealers at the Excalibur have been given 2 weeks notice. They're being replaced by computers.

On August 21, the Excalibur is scheduled to open their poker room with 12 electronic PokerPro poker tables which will replace their existing 12 traditional tables. There will be no dealers and the room will be staffed only by 1 or 2 poker "hosts."

I spoke today with Neil who is currently a floor person and is slated to be one of the hosts for the room. He will seat players, move players from table to table during tournaments, assist with purchasing and cashing out, enforce poker room rules regarding behavior, and do other tasks.

Neil had a list of questions for management such as whether the rake would be the same, will they still have a jackpot drop, will they still spin their bonus wheel and other such questions. He didn't know at this time. One potential profitable opportunity for us could be the wheel money in reserve. They may to give it back to the players which they'd likely do in a promotion that could be good.

As far as those questions, he didn't know the answer.

What he did know is that when you play you sign up for an ATM card and then you deposit money in that account. You then swipe your card at the table when you sit down and it registers your balance on the screen. When you're done playing you remove the card and you can cash out your money from the card.

The tables look like this:

Another person I spoke with at the Excalibur implied that this was a test from the MGM/Mirage corporation and not an Excalibur decision. If the tables show themselves to be more profitable than having a fully staffed room then they will start to convert other poker rooms in the corporation to these.

From the casino's perspective this could greatly increase profitability of the poker room. The first savings that comes to mind is the dealer wages (and benefits), but there is also the savings of not having to buy new cards, not having to rent the automatic shuffling machines, not having the admin of chip handling and surveillance, and more. Also, since it's expected games will be played faster, the casino believes each table will generate a greater amount of rake per hour.

For players, I'd say that it's a mixed bag. One benefit is that the games will go faster and that there will be more hands per hour. Another is that dealer tips will be unnecessary.

I do wonder about certain aspects of the game. I wonder if there are 3 deuces on the screen if a player might be more apt to say he folded a deuce since there won't be a dealer sitting at the table moderating. I wonder if people will be more likely to say they folded the ace of hearts when they see 4 hearts on the board. I also wonder if when someone is contemplating a big all in call on the river if there'll be more people urging to caller to call when they should absolutely keep their mouths shut.

I wonder if the bad poker players will be as excited about jumping in a game when they can't riffle chips in their hand and get cards to play with. I think the physical aspect of poker contributes to the enjoyment for some people.

I'll go on record to say I'm skeptical that these tables can be popular... but I've been wrong before and I could be wrong again.