New electronic poker tables get cold reception.

Last month, officials at the Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino's poker room substituted its traditional poker with five 10-seat electronic tables where players can still bet against others, similar to online poker platforms. Each player has about 40 seconds to choose what to do, and that doesn’t give you any time to chat or take the show. Instead of try to read the opponents’ tell, players pay more attention to which touch-screen button is being eyed, trying to figure out who’s going to or raise.

"I just miss looking at the players since most are focused on the monitors in front of the” said one of the poker players that tried the new tables. Paul Ryan, general manager of Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino, and Lou Crescenzo, vice president of casino operations, tested the system for  eight months before installing the automated tables to their casino back in December. The change ended up affecting several casino workers 17 workers, some where placed at other tables or remained in the poker room as simple cashiers.

"We think this is the future," Ryan said. "You can't make a mistake. . . . Here, you can't embarrass yourself."

Steve Miller, interim director of table games for Pechanga Resort & Casino was one of the people who came to check the players’ reaction and real functionality of the new poker tables. His casino tested two automated tables from PokerTek and Shuffle Master last year, but most of visitors who tried them favored the live tables. "We're waiting to see what happens when business goes down to normal levels," he said. "People like to touch the cards. They like to touch the chips” expressed Miller.

With lower costs, Fantasy Springs has lowered its rake from $5 to $3, unfortunately not all the casino' visitors were convinced about the possible favorable points and improved features of the electronic tables such as less time wasted, fewer dealer mistakes and fewer tips distributed.