CHIPS MAY FALL DIGITALLY

When poker players gather by the thousands at the Rio for the World Series of Poker, the combined clicking of poker chips fills the convention hall the way chirping crickets provide sound ambience on a warm summer night.

Black-vested dealers at more than 200 tables flip cards to players who slyly peek at their hands or casually play with the chips to channel nervous energy or bluff others at the table.

Now imagine high stakes poker with no dealers, no chips and no cards.

It's a dramatically different scene and one that could become reality if electronic poker tables take over card rooms the way coinless slot machines have casino floors.

The tables are already in use in jurisdictions around the world and the Nevada Gaming Commission recently licensed a company that makes the devices to do business in the epicenter of the gambling world.

"I don't like it," said Mark Zand, 48, of Weston, Fla., one of 6,358 players in the main event of the World Series on Tuesday. "If I go to a casino to play in a computerized game, I might as well stay at home and play online."

But purists' love for clay chips and dealer banter may not be enough to outweigh the significance of the almighty dollar in the eyes of casinos.

Not only do electronic poker tables manufactured by PokerTek of Matthews, N.C., lower costs by replacing dealers, they speed up the game -- which increases the rake for the house. It also means players don't have to tip a dealer.

One analysis of a $4 to $8 limit hold 'em game reported that players who started out with $100 would have about $1.10 less after an hour of play at the electronic tables than players at a normal table. But they will have played 50 percent more hands, which means more poker for less money.

PokerTek is betting speed and accuracy will win out over nostalgia.

"There is no dealer who needs to make a shift change," said PokerTek spokeswoman Tracy Egan. "There are no player mistakes, no dealer mistakes, so it is really error-free."

PokerTek was recently licensed to do business in Nevada and is in the process of getting tables approved by regulators.

The company offers two-person and 10-person casino versions of the tables. It also offers a two-person version for bars.

The 10-person casino version has individual touch screens for each player and a 40-inch flat screen in the middle to display community cards, players' table stakes and the pot.

The individual screens show each player his or her hole cards. The casino isn't privy to the hole cards nor does the player have to show them after folding, just like in live poker. The electronic machines do, however, keep a record of the action that could be used to settle disputes about collusion or other allegations, Egan said.

Weldon Russell, who oversees poker, keno and bingo for Stations Casinos' 10 Las Vegas area casino hotels, said he likes the electronic layouts but doesn't think they will completely replace live- action poker.

"They will never take over a poker room because you have got to have dealers," Russell said.

But he added the electronic version is "fantastic" for tournaments because, "you can set them up any way they want and you don't tie up a dealer with them."

He said it is too early to say how long it will take for electronic tables to take hold in poker culture.

"It is the wave of the future," Russell said. "How long in the future? I don't know."

The tables are already in play in Florida, Oklahoma, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, according to PokerTek.

The company says they could be in use in Nevada -- home to 901 live poker tables, more than 85 percent of which are in Clark County -- as soon as six months from now. The company is anxious to move into Nevada because it sees an opportunity to tap into a poker revenue stream that topped $164 million in 2006.

Travis Foley, chief of technology division for Nevada Gaming Control Board, said the tables are considered gaming devices, which means they need approval from the board. But they would be taxed like table games as opposed to slot machines. That means the state will take a percentage of the rake. The state takes a per-unit tax on slot machines plus a percentage of revenue, Foley said.

Although electronic table games have been around since the early 1990s more recent technological advances make today's versions more elaborate and practical than older editions.

Electronic tables are gaining a higher profile at industry trade shows like the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, which is usually a precursor of the future of gambling.

"It seems to me that electronic table games were relatively popular at the show," Foley said of the most recent expo. "If that is any indication, it appears they will be popular in the industry."

But traditionalists say electronic poker remains inferior to games with cards, chips and a dealer.

Mike Lacey, a player at the World Series of Poker, said he watches the way an opponent handles cards and chips for tells, the unintentional, nonverbal signals that provide clues about the quality of a player's hand.

"You might get tells from the way a person pushes buttons, but it won't be the same as the way they stack chips," said Lacey, 36, of Drogheda, Ireland.

Derek Williams, another player in the tournament who joined Lacey for a cigarette break, said he wouldn't trust a machine to monitor the table in the same way a dealer does.

"Players could be talking to other players, colluding," said Williams, 47, of Dublin, Ireland. "If that happened in a live game, a dealer would be all over them."

World Series dealer Linda Defazio of Montello said live dealers are also a convenient scapegoat for players who get bad hands. Blaming a machine isn't the same as cursing at a dealer, said Defazio, a dealer for 34 years.

"How are you going to target a machine?" she asked.

Live dealers and tangible cards and chips also add to the ambience of a poker game, she said.

That said, Defazio recognized a new generation of poker players is learning the game online. Those players are less likely to be put off by the notion of an electronic game.

"It is the new world. I am from the old world," Defazio said. "I'll probably be on my way out about the time the machines come in."