Here the video of robot dealer. Any thoughs on this?
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/ideal_automic_p.php

My first thought is that it's WAY too slow to be taken seriously by any casino.

They make their money raking pots, and the less pots their are, the less pots there are to rake.

The question might wind up being, what's cheaper....a dealers wages, or the fact that this thing is slow enough that you're going to rake less pots?

BUT, who's going to divide the pot when somebody goes all in?......one of the players?......
And who's going to rule on a dispute?......without a dealer you've got a floor person who didn't see the cause of the dispute.

It's a novelty item.

It's always been my fear that when I'm old enough to enter a casino, hand dealt games will no longer exist.


8

8, I wouldn't worry too much about it, for the exact reasons I mention in my post.

It's not the "I dealer" like in the vid that should have you wondering about the future of bricks and mortar poker though, it's the concept of a completely video based poker table.

The culture of the poker player is different than players of other table games.....and most casinos are sensitive to the fact that poker players want what they want simply because they want it....and the casino poker rooms make sure they give it to them.

Remember, it's ALL about the rake for casino poker room, which means pleasing the players.......and the players (at least right now) want live dealers, and real decks of cards.

Unless they hook that machine up to an automatic shuffler they're going to need someone to at least load the cards. But I agree with Silverking. It's way to slow for casino play, and they'd need a pit boss to settle disputes. I don't think that's going to replace flesh and blood dealers anytime soon. Honestly it looks a little like an automaton bridge dealer in Steve Forte's collection from about the turn of the last century. It is an interesting concept though.

There is a picture in Genii Magazine (Steve Forte Interview) of an automatic dealer called "The Square Deal" that was built at the turn of the century. It is completely mechanical... and when you put it in the middle of the table, it deals to 4 players

Yes that was the one I was refering to. I made the assumption it was for bridge. I don't know if that's mentioned in the interview.

It looks like it only deals in a full circle, which would make sense for bridge, but also any other game where the dealer played.

It doesn't look like it can miss a "player" for a non-playing dealer...although not seeing it or having it described in the Forte article makes it hard to say for sure.

One things for sure, it's a beautiful piece of kit, and I've never seen one anywhere but in Steve's collection as highlighted in that Genii article.

Actually, it's called the "Square Dealer."

The piece in Steve's collection is nickel-plated and the only one known to exist in nickel. Only one or two others (in various metals) are known to exist period. The manufacturer was Burt Bros. The piece is probably circa 1900.

Jason

Click here to view attached image.

Clock,

Just to make sure you don't think I'm correcting you, at the time the Genii article was written Steve thought the machine was called the "Square Deal". It was reported as such in the article. So, you attributed it correctly to the best of your knowledge.

It was only this summer as we took a closer look at the engraving on it for a massive series of photos we were taking that he realized it actually said "Dealer" instead of "Deal."

It's a cool piece and a highlight of his collection.

Jason

Gorgeous machine...

How exactly does it work? Is there a wind up?

Best,

Grant

Like everything else from the early 1900's, it's powered by asbestos and the tears of child laborers.
I think the physical act of dealing cards is the least demanding of a dealer's tasks.