The electronic poker tables that were all the fad over the past few years are about to be history. Just one year ago Excalibur went all-electronic in its poker rooms. A spokesperson for the MGM Mirage has confirmed the companies plan to remove all 12 electronic PokerPro poker tables, and replace them with real live dealers, real cards, and real chips.
Last August Excalibur introduced the PokerPro tables, the first of its kind in Las Vegas. Manufactured by Pokertek, the glamorous PokerPro tables were not all they were cracked up to be. When the tables were installed, Todd DeRemer, VP of Gaming Operations for Excalibur said the hope was that the PokerPro tables would create “opportunity to pique the interest of a different kind of player,” but this was unfortunately not the case.
Lynn Holt, VP of Marketing for Excalibur casinos says, “Excalibur was happy to be the first Las Vegas Strip casino to offer poker players the opportunity to enjoy the PokerTek automated system. We found the system to be an efficient and viable poker alternative for players at all levels.
“While our experience was successful, we ultimately found that live poker games more accurately reflect the interactive poker experience customers have come to expect when they make their way to the excitement of the Las Vegas Strip.”
Last month Pokertek released a press release that confirmed they had received notification that Excalibur had “elected to exercise its rights to terminate its agreement at any time if the field trial for the PokerPro system lasted more than four months.” Pokerpro ended their field trial on the 19th of March 2009 in accordance with the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Mark Roberson, CEO of PokerTek said, “We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Excalibur and their partnership was critical to the success of our field trial in Nevada. Over the past year, we’ve built a strong base of PokerPro players and our product is stronger than ever as a result of the field trial process. We do not expect the termination of this agreement to have a significant impact on our reported revenues or results of operations.”
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