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Thursday, November 4, 2010

GambleTron 2010



Partner and I spent some time recently at Foxwoods, the big Connecticut casino. I normally stick to the slots, but I also like to hang around the table games and watch people playing poker and blackjack.
Well, guess what they've just installed? Virtual-reality table games.
There were four huge TV screens on one big unit, facing the four cardinal directions. Two were displaying life-sized virtual blackjack dealers, one was a virtual craps table, and one was a virtual roulette table. I am normally intimidated by table games; I'm not very sure of my gambling skills, and I'm afraid I'm going to either slow the game down for everyone else, or (worse) make a fool of myself, or (worst of all) lose all my money in a single bad bet. Or all three.
But this was just a big video display dealing virtual cards.
Well, I says to myself, I can handle this.
I did quite well, actually. I played $20 into $120 over an hour or so. I also attracted quite a crowd. Casino managers kept coming over one or two at a time, wanting to know how I liked it. Players kept wandering idly by and kibitzing over my shoulder. I especially liked the old guy who kept whispering “Stand!” and “Hit!” under his breath as he watched my cards.
The virtual dealer was a woman. Actually, it was four different women. All of them were quite attractive, although evening gowns seem a little dressy for 11:00 am. Now and then they'd look up in an eerie Max Headroom way and wink in a random direction; since I was the only player, I only got about one wink out of five. The image also jumped and stuttered from time to time, which I think was on purpose, to remind you that this was not a real human being. Then, after dealing about ten hands, Virtual Valerie would suddenly morph into Virtual Veronica or Virtual Violet (my favorite was the one who appeared to be standing in the middle of a swimming pool). One, a blond in a low-cut dress, seemed to fascinate most of the men who were kibitzing, including one of the casino managers; he giggled whenever she looked in his direction, and whenever she said “Dealer busts!” - well, you can just imagine.
Casinos have two basic kinds of games: obsessive one-player games like slots, which require very little human interaction, and table games, which are all about human interaction – with the dealer, with the other players, and with spectators. And slot machines, if you haven't played them recently, have gotten very videoized; they morph and swirl all over the place. (They also don't seem to pay off the way they used to. I'm just saying.)
But now they have figured out a way to turn table games into video games.
When I was the only player at the table, I did quite well. As soon as other people joined the game, however, I played much more poorly. I was trying to pay attention to everything at once: the dealer's cards, the bets, my own cards, and the cards my fellow players were getting. And the comments, and the little interactions, and the actual near-approach to human contact. My poor head just doesn't work as fast as it used to, especially with so much stimulation.
The virtual roulette table right next door was very popular. It soon collected a rowdy little crowd of players, chatting and having a good time. Those of us playing blackjack were a morose group of loners, staring at our cards and making furtive eye contact with one another from time to time.
Roulette is just luck, you see. Blackjack actually has a skill component and requires concentration, and my concentration is very limited these days.
But I had a very nice time anyway. Technology wins again.
But as a card-carrying Luddite, I have to tell you also about one guy, wearing the vest and nametag of a casino dealer, who stood behind me for a few minutes and watched me play. Finally, before moving away, he muttered: “Great. They don't have to pay her a cent, and she can deal cards twenty-four hours a day.”




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