Online gambling

No chips to stack, cards to flip, or dealer to tip. Could this be the future of casino poker?

A North Carolina company hopes to hit the jackpot with a version of the game that gets rid of all three, and PokerTek's fully electronic tables have already won converts in cruise ships and on Indian reservations. But will players in Las Vegas poker rooms be willing to give up a felt table for a computer touchscreen?

"It's two trends. It's poker, which is really a huge hit right now, and it's labor-saving technology, which is really popular with the casinos," said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. "It's a great idea and it's an idea that's in keeping with a lot of trends."

Seat 10 players around one of the company's PokerPro tables and the number of Texas Hold 'em hands played per hour goes up by 50 percent over a dealer-run table, said PokerTek CEO Lou White. That means an increased "rake" for the casino -- the small percentage of each pot collected by the house - and eliminates the cost of a dealer's salary and benefits.

Players get more action - and don't have to tip a dealer, either. As White puts it, "Poker players want to play more hands."

PokerTek has collected endorsements from poker stars like Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, but will have to win over players like Harold Schmidt, a 40-year-old from Fredericksburg, Va., who busted out of this year's World Series of Poker on the first day of play.

"I like the chips and you know, I like to have people play with the chips and do tricks with the chips," Schmidt said Friday. "Here, what are you going to do, tap your fingers on the screen?"

Sean Ward, 36, of Flagstaff, Ariz., was also dubious.

"Electronics kind of scare me," said Ward, a recreational poker player who was in Las Vegas with his wife. "Seeing the randomness coming out of a deck as opposed to computerized randomization - it's a little bit more, I guess, visual. I don't know about trustworthy but at least you're seeing it."

Play moves quickly around a PokerPro table. The screen shows at a glance how much money is in a player's stack. The hole cards appear face down in the lower right corner; tap lightly, and the cards peel up for a quick peek. A screen in the center of the table displays the current pot and the community cards.

Play is automated, leaving little room for error or confusion about whose turn it is to bet, raise, check or fold. The screen displays a player's available options.

"There's a lot of testosterone in poker rooms," White said. "It is very intimidating. What PokerPro does, it will be very comfortable for people who, once they've learned to play in their kitchen, want to play in a casino."

Rodney Dofort, vice president of casino operations for Miami-based Carnival Corp., installed a table on a Carnival cruise ship this spring.

"We were a little skeptical, because poker is essentially an interactive game," Dofort said. "We were quite pleasantly surprised by the almost immediate acceptance of it that first week." Last month, Carnival signed an agreement with PokerTek to put the tables on up to 30 ships over the next three years.

Another dozen PokerPro tables are in use on other cruise lines and at Indian casinos in Florida and Oklahoma, White said. The company is installing six tables at a new "e-poker" room at Hollywood Park in California, and White said PokerTek is seeking licenses from gaming commissions in Nevada, New Jersey, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Casinos lease the tables from PokerTek, paying a fee to license the company's software. PokerTek, which employs 52 people, went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market last October, and closed at $12 a share Friday, below a 52-week high of $15.95 set in April.

Other companies offer similar systems, including Ashton, Pa.-based Pokermatic Inc.'s "Lightning Poker" table. The Pennsylvania company has a pending federal lawsuit that claims PokerTek told its customers that Lightning Poker infringes on PokerTek patents or patent applications.

"People have seen this business and said, 'Gee, this makes a lot of sense. I think I'd like to copy that,'" White said of the suit. "We have over 27 published patent applications."

AP writer Ryan Nakashima in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

PokerTek: http://www.pokertek.com
UNLV Center for Gaming Research: http://gaming.unlv.edu/