Venetian Brings Slide Dealing to the Strip, Poker Community Weighs In

^{The Venetian is the first poker room on the Strip to introduce slide dealing. (Photo: @lipstour / Instagram)}

LAS VEGAS – The Venetian has become the first poker room on the Las Vegas Strip to adopt slide dealing, a method designed to improve game integrity. The changes have drawn support from some in the poker community while others are raising questions about how the method could affect the pace of play.

The South Point was the first Vegas casino to implement slide dealing, with the Venetian now following suit in mid-October. Rather than pitching cards in the conventional method, the dealer slides each card across the felt to the individual players.

Slide dealing is popular in Europe but is slowly making its way across Vegas. For operators, it entails spending money teaching dealers how to switch from pitch to slide.

“We began evaluating slide dealing earlier this year as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen game protection,” Tommy LaRosa, Director of Poker Operations at the Venetian, told Casinos.com. “As technology continues to evolve, we felt it was important to be proactive and adopt a dealing method that helps safeguard the player experience.”

Poker Pros and Industry Leaders Sound Off

High-stakes poker pro Matt Berkey was one of the first to publicly praise the Venetian’s change. He posted about the change on Oct. 13, after a local player shared footage with him through Discord.

Berkey, former host of the popular podcast Only Friends and creator of the poker training site Solve For Why, told Casinos.com that slide dealing can reduce human error and make it harder for cameras or other technology to capture hole cards.

“Mixed game players have pointed out how easy it is to spot suit colors with the naked eye off the pitch,” Berkey told Casinos.com. “If we can get that much right with the naked eye, imagine what a 4k camera slowed down frame by frame can catch.”

Berkey also added that several large cheating rings exposed in recent years incurred over $10 million in losses, so the potential financial impact makes the extra security measures worth it.

“These protocols are in place for a reason,” he said. “Personally, I know of a couple large cheating rings that were exposed over the past few years using pinhole cams and microscopic headphones in order to hole card people.”

Matt Savage, executive tour director for the World Poker Tour and founder of the Tournament Directors Association, also supports the change. He says he has seen it work well even on a global perspective.

“I’m in favor of slide dealing as I have seen it be successful around the world in Europe, Australia, Asia, and South America,” Savage told Casinos.com. “The challenges of training and retraining those that have been dealing proficiently for many years, plus the costs associated with making the change, are prohibitive.”

Despite those challenges, Savage emphasized that game security should remain the priority. “The integrity of the game is of paramount importance,” he said.

Poker Players Online Debate the Cost of Slide Dealing

Some players on X are concerned about how the change might slow down the action and affect dealers’ tips. Slower hands per hour could mean fewer tips over a session, a tradeoff some players see as a cost of the added security.

“Obviously biased as I dealt for 15 years in Washington State, but this is unsightly to me,” commented user @shawn_karmil. “This would have cost 90% of the dealers I worked with five to ten dollars an hour easy, not a hit any of us could have afforded.”

On the other hand, French poker professional Johan “YoH ViraL” Gilbert, who has more than $7 million in live earnings according to Hendon Mob, is excited for the change. He commented that it's “very good for players’ protection.”

Other players have questioned whether the Venetian’s adoption will prompt additional poker rooms to voluntarily follow suit.

“There is gonna [obviously] be a large learning curve,” user @RossTheBoss085 said. “These are dealers who have done pitch their whole careers and now are forced to swap. I don’t see all the rooms swapping over unless it's forced by the gaming commission for game security, though.”

As slide dealing gains traction in Las Vegas, the debate over its practicality, cost, and potential benefits for game integrity is likely to continue. Venetian’s decision comes as poker operators face continued scrutiny over game security. Slide-dealing offers one way to reduce that risk, although its adoption at scale will likely depend on whether operators believe the security benefits justify the time and expense of retraining dealers.

“I prefer whatever method is safest,” Berkey said. “This isn't a matter of preference in my opinion. Game integrity, especially at the highest stakes, is of the utmost importance at all times.”