Technology is sweeping the casino floor. Sophisticated slot machines are providing flashier graphics to keep players glued to their seats as video components turn the play into a better entertainment experience. More and more casinos will install systems that will connect their machines to a single server so slot-floor managers will be able to make changes from a keyboard, minimizing the labor-intensive process of changing individual machines.

A Las Vegas poker dealer, who for obvious reasons did not want to give his name, had conflicting reactions while trying out the new electronic poker tables at the Excalibur. As a dealer, he hated the 10-player tables which are fully automated and do not require cards, chips or a dealer. In other words, one less casino job. As a poker player participating in a low-limit cash game, though, he found the tables easy to maneuver and faster than live games.

Atlantic City, New Jersey (AP) -- Dealers at the Trump Marina Hotel Casino will get a second chance to form a union after a judge threw out the results of a 2007 vote in which the United Auto Workers narrowly lost a campaign to unionize workers there. Administrative Law Judge Earl Shamwell Jr. set aside the results of the first vote, in which the union lost by eight votes out of 358 ballots cast.

Las Vegas –- Two TV cameras. Two guys holding boom microphones. Three ESPN producers. At least 50 eager spectators leaning in over the rail, including four boisterous 20-something males who appear to have already downed at least six cups of beer each. A table supervisor and floor announcer. And nine poker players with millions at stake. That was the scene at one of the three remaining tables inside the Amazon Room early Monday afternoon...

Las Vegas (AP) - Dealers at the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas have voted down union representation. Saturday's action, taken on a 247-162 vote, was the first setback for Las Vegas Dealers Local 721 after successful organizing efforts last year at Wynn Las Vegas and Caesars Palace. Union officials say after the vote count, overseen by officials from the National Labor Relations Board, that they're not discouraged and would continue the efforts at local casinos.

Brussels, 20 June 2008 --- The European Casino Association (ECA) today announced that its 2009 European Dealer Championship will be held from 21-22 April 2009 in Casino Cosmopol, Malmö, Sweden. Following the resounding success of the first two European Dealer Championships in Casino Torrequebrada, Spain and Casinò di Venezia, Italy, interest in the 2009 event is already high and it is anticipated that all 23 ECA member countries will participate.

David Witte drove all night to join hundreds of fellow casino dealers in Hartford. But he wasn't interested in Connecticut. His final goal was Florida. The riverboat casino dealer from Indiana traveled 14 hours to the Connecticut Convention Center to interview for a job with the Seminole Hard Rock casinos Tuesday morning.

Vienna, 25 March 2008 --- Launched in 2007, the European Casino Association's annual European Dealer Championship has already firmly established itself as a key event in the European gaming calendar. The championship aims to demonstrate the high levels of professionalism among dealers in Europe and celebrate best practices in creating a welcoming, fun, safe and fair environment in European casinos.

Miami (AP) - The Seminole Tribe of Florida is about to start hiring workers for blackjack and other card games it plans to soon offer at its casinos, even though the compact with Gov. Charlie Crist allowing the games is being challenged in the Florida Supreme Court. The tribe will begin running print advertisements Friday that pitch job openings for 3,650 dealers for blackjack, baccarat and pai gow, which is a form of poker.

Dealers at MGM Mirage's 10 Strip casinos will be given a pay raise Monday, as much as 22 percent in some cases, as the gaming operator moves to implement a uniform pay structure for more than 5,100 of its workers. MGM Mirage President Jim Murren said Friday afternoon the raises, as high as USD 1.42 an hour for 60 percent of the company's Strip dealers, were needed to create a level playing field among its dealing work force.

The international union organizing casino dealers on the Strip is forming a new gaming division to better focus its efforts to unionize locally. The Transport Workers Union of America’s top officials announced the new Las Vegas-based division during a special meeting that drew nearly 130 local dealers. "We’re committed to getting the job done and we’re not going away," the division director, Joseph Carbon, said.

Dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino say they are going ahead with union preparations after the Nov. 24 vote regardless of objections management has filed with the National Labor Relations Board. "When I got started, I said to myself, 'I will see this to the end. I will not waiver from this.' ...We deserve it and we need it," 15-year dealer Bill Shea of Westerly said.