Electronic Poker Table on Display at WSOP Raises Stakes in Automation of Las Vegas
Posted on: May 30, 2025, 12:02h.
Last updated on: May 30, 2025, 12:28h.
Jackpot Digital on Friday announced that its new dealer-less Jackpot Blitz electronic poker table is on display at the 2025 World Series of Poker, which got underway Tuesday at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas.
If you’ve stayed in Las Vegas since the pandemic, you’ve probably either been checked into your resort or buffet by a machine. If you stayed at the Excalibur, which eliminated most of its bell staff earlier this year, you might have even gotten to push your own luggage up to your room — and paid for the privilege, since the wheels of the resort’s new luggage carts won’t unlock until the cart is fed a credit card.
More than a dozen Las Vegas casinos already employ electronic table games (ETGs). Introduced during the pandemic, ostensibly to reduce COVID exposure, they’ve hung around because they also reduce labor costs.
Touchscreen experiences now simulate blackjack, roulette, and baccarat at the Bellagio, Venetian, Resorts World, and Rio, while “Roll to Win” craps (a hybrid combining electronic terminals with live dice) is available at Circus Circus and Harrah’s.
As Las Vegas gaming profits continue to fall, these machines are likely to continue their rise.
All-In on Automation
With Jackpot Blitz, Jackpot Digital, the leading manufacturer of dealer-less poker tables, is making a play to convert what’s left of poker in Las Vegas into a series of poker arcades.
The Vancouver, Canada-based company’s press release announcing Jackpot Blitz’s appearance at the 56th WSOP targets casino executives eager to save their own jobs by separating more dealers from theirs.
“Jackpot Blitz dramatically reduces labor expenses and HR staffing, maximizing operational efficiencies for casinos and card rooms,” the release boasts.
Dealer-less poker tables (not counting video poker) were tried at Excalibur about 15 years ago but failed due to player dissatisfaction. Those electronic tables, manufactured by PokerTek, were perceived as less engaging than live game and some players distrusted the random number generators, fearing manipulation despite regulatory oversight.
But Jackpot Digital, which acquired PokerTek in 2015, has significantly improved the technology, incorporating 84-inch 4K touchscreens and gesture-based gameplay into Jackpot Blitz.
And now is a better time to go all-in on poker automation because it’s not only dealers being displaced from casino floors, it’s the game of poker itself.
Most poker rooms, which offer a much lower profit margin than slot machines to casinos (about $10 per square foot annually vs. $4,00 per square foot for slots), have been eliminated entirely from casino offerings or banished far away from gaming floors.
Sadly, automating poker could be the very thing that saves the game in Las Vegas.
Last Comments ( 1 )
The wife and were traveling through Oklahoma one time when we saw a billboard for a casino and it stated they had an electronic poker table. After I read this article, I talked to my wife about our time playing on an electronic poker table and we both came to the same conclusion. It is not as fun as playing with physical chips and cards because you don't get the feeling of holding chips and cards. Given the choice between playing on a traditional table and an electronic table, I am giving the electronic table a pass.