Technology in Las Vegas

It's hard to think of technology in Las Vegas beyond updating the neon lights and the surveillance cameras surveying every pit, but the truth is a lot of time and money goes into developing new products for use in casinos. Take the Table Master by Shuffle Master, at your left, for instance. It's a fully-automated casino: no cards, no dealer, runs 24/7 and can't be cheated. Doesn't sound like very much fun to us, as we're big fans of human interaction, but it might be just the perfect thing for some casinos, or maybe even places like airport lounges.

The Wynn Las Vegas isn't the kind of place to have Table Masters but all their poker chips are made by Shuffle Master and have RFID tags embedded within, so the resort can track their movement from cashier to table back to cashier. Chips aside, the Wynn might just be the most technologically up to date resort in the world right now. Every room has HDTV and a speaker wire so you can plug your own MP3 player in. They also have what they say is the largest VOIP installation in a hotel: 4,200 phones, each with an interactive display.

Click: Vegas gambles on a hi-tech future [BBC News]