Play live poker without cards, chips or dealers

Live poker games don't require dealers anymore. Hustler Casino, in southern California, just installed entirely automated poker tables.

Players view their hole cards on digital screens and use touch screens to make bets. In other words, even "live" poker has gone digital. 

Kenny Rosenblatt, chief executive of Arkadium inc., the software company that has developed the "FastDeal" poker tables, believes in his product.

"We're planning an expansion into Las Vegas and Atlantic City in the next couple of years," Rosenblatt said to Las Vegas Sun. He also said that the company's goal is to have 1,000 of the digital poker tables installed in card rooms nationwide by 2010.

Arkadium, however, hasn't produced the first digital poker table on the market. The California-based company PokerTek has developed the most recognized automated table in the business. But Rosenblatt promotes the unique features of his product.

Alongside a digital game, Arkadium's tables offer automated cashier kiosks. Players can start accounts, add and withdraw money digitally. So one could say that live poker is moving towards online poker, maybe we will even see live-poker sign-up bonuses in the future.