Don\’t ask me why, but I am … some dude (at the Hard Rock, quasi-coincidentally) was talking just the other day about the new ShuffleTech machines — the in-table ShuffleMaster knock-off. I don\’t know the details, but apparently ShuffleMaster has quite the grip on the automatic poker-table shuffler market. You\’ve probably noticed these popping up (literally) on more and more tables these days, and they are all made by the same company. However, you\’re kinda shit-outta-luck if you want one for your home/underground game … you can find the tables with the ShuffleMasters pre-installed, however you are screwed because they have to do the maintenance (or something like that).
Anyhow, that\’s the half-story I know about this company that seems to be on the forefront of deeply vested in gambling technology. (One of their other products I just saw at Caesar\’s last week was a cardless table-blackjack game featuring a video image of a dealer.)
But now ShuffleTech is in the picture, too — not dealing to casinos, but to home users. While I want to say, \”Awesome!\” … I gotta say, looking at their shufflers makes me think of the first laptops, when they were the size of suitcases. But still, as archaic as their version (which somehow steers clear of patent protections) seems, I can\’t see how these won\’t become more and more standard in the future … and once we get some robots that can actually pitch the cards … watch out dealers:
(But for now, could you imagine being deep in the tank when the next deck is being set rumble rumble?)
