Bonanza Blackjack (live video BJ)

While at the Colorado Belle in Laughlin I saw a Blackjack table that had no cards but was played on video screens. The "dealer" was just there to pay and take bets while the computer does all of the work. At each seat there is a video screen and some buttons that say hit, stand, double, split. The dealer has a larger screen with his set of buttons. To the dealers left was what looked like a shoe but it had a digital screen on it with an image of a card back. I didn't ask the dealer how many decks or how often it was "shuffled" but I'm sure the odds weren't good.

In addition to being spooky it offered a bonus on some hands with two tens all the way up to $15,000. This really freaked me out because I felt as though I was looking at the future of blackjack and it game me the willies. Bets allowed were from $1 to $500. I wonder if you should tip the "dealer". He's not actually doing anything that a video blackjack machine can't do and I've only tipped a michine once...onto the floor. OK maybe not but I couldn't resist that.

A local Indian casino tried that thing out. It was a total failure and was gone in a short time. Every once in a while they would get some kid who never played before to sit down and stare at the little video screen, but they would soon walk away after placing a few minimum bets.

It definately is NOT the future of Blackjack for the following reasons;

1. Trust - The average player will not trust the machine to deal fairly no matter what "certfications" are done.
2. Boring! - It was so pitiful to see a player or two staring, stone faced into the little monitors.
3. Interataction with others - Or lack thereof. You can't really see the other players cards so there is no hoping the jerk sitting next to you loses or thinking that the shoe is "hot" or the table is "on a roll". Which brings up the fact that it eliminates most of the ploppy nonsense about taking the dealers card and the flow of the cards.

The only people that should be afraid of this obomination is the casino personel that chose to install it!

It's good to hear that these tables have failed at other casinos. Something is just missing when the dealer can't slowly reveal his hole card or say a smart ass comment on his blackjack. Peaking under the card to see your own blackjack, yelling for the dealer to draw a ten, cards flying, they are all part of the game. More importantly they make the game fun and interesting for me at least.

Making sure the game is honest is definately an issue and I don't trust a computer the casino is running to do everything correctly. Well the Colorado Belle has crappy games anyway but I didn't see any of these machines at the Ramada Express...they did have tic tac toe playing chickens though.