By A. Norman January 2003, Reprinted from Western Player Magazine

I have been a fan of Star Trek since the first episode. I remember one of the first shows from the sixties where the crew was on leave at a "pleasure planet". As happened most weeks, Captain Kirk "got lucky" in a close encounter kind of way with the required alien female. Captain Kirk:famous for going where no man had gone before. I believe that Chekhov and possibly McCoy also got romantically involved in that episode. But I digress; my point is that there was a scene in a futuristic casino. Really, it was pretty tame. But I do remember a kind of electronic table where it looked like blackjack was being played. There were other electronic games everywhere along with lots of neon and flashing lights.

Looking back after more than thirty-five years, this should not be surprising. In any casino today electronics dominate. Machines are everywhere. All designed to be interactively alluring with features that entertain and captivate players. But until last week, other than in Star Trek, I had never seen an electronic Blackjack table. Sure, I have played video blackjack. Occasionally, over the Internet with some pretty fancy programming, and in brick and mortar casinos at stand-alone terminals. However, these were completely electronic with virtual cards, chips and even a virtual dealer.

But last week at the Skagit Hotel Casino, I had my first experience with digital blackjack and found the game to be quite enjoyable. As taken from their website; "DigiDeal, a Nevada Corporation, was founded in 1998 and is in the business of inventing, designing, prototyping and delivering products to the gaming industry.

DigiDeal Corporation is a privately held company located in Spokane, Washington with an international sales office in Houston, Texas. The Company has extensive capabilities ranging from sales and marketing, product support, product development and graphic design to procurement and vendor management and regulatory compliance. "The Company's primary technology is the "Digital Card System " (DCS). Utilizing a digital card delivery system and a live dealer, the DCS platform offers operational efficiencies while maintaining the feel and play of a live table game.

Casinos have the ability to customize rules and retrieve statistical game history not available on traditional tables. In addition, the platform reduces dealer training, eliminates mistakes and cheating and increases table productivity up to 100%, or more. Given the flexibility of a "digital system, " the platform not only lends itself to traditional table games but also to hybrid and novel concepts, thereby expanding the breadth of products currently offered by casinos."

From a distance the table is no different from the traditional blackjack table. There is a human dealer collecting and paying out real casino chips. There is also something that looks like a shoe, but is really the table controller. The main difference is the absence of playing cards. Instead, there are six video screens imbedded in the cloth-covered table. It is on these screens that the player and dealer cards appear. The hands of the other players are also shown on the screen as each is played.

Personally, I found the graphics and readability excellent. Given a human dealer with which to interact, and to pay my winning bets, I did not miss the actual playing cards. Also, the "instant card totaling", "instant outcome", and the "suggested play feature" displayed for each hand, speeds up the game. Although the basic blackjack strategy suggestions are optional, I noticed the players at my table were playing according to basic strategy. Even though I know that whatever another player at the table does, will "help me as often as it hurts me", I still like to see people play properly. My best "runs" have occurred at tables where everyone played consistent proper blackjack. With the suggested play feature of Digital Blackjack, consistent play is more likely.

When I played, the Skagit table had been in operation for less than one week. Even so, dealers and pit bosses alike were very comfortable with it. Also, not having the chore of dealing and picking up actual cards, dealers seemed more relaxed. And with the outcome of each hand indicated by a color coded display border, winners and losers were determined at a glance.

As we move into the future, I believe that we will see more and more of these virtual type table games. DigiDeal has other games in play in casinos around the world. There is, from a game perspective, very little that cannot be done electronically. However, the important part is to maintain the human interaction. Without the personal touch we might as well stay home in front of our computer. And that's the difference going to a casino. It's not just the noise and the hustle and bustle of people around you. It's also the dealers, and the human interaction that makes it special. Even thirty-five years ago they knew, you can hi tech the games, but you still need the human component.