I have to check out your post later tonight, but I know of the autmoated machine you are talking about. I think it's terrible. It's good for the casino - they can make more money, but it really takes away the draw for playing in a casino. I might as well play at home online and see 4 times as many hands per hour anyway.
As a side note, I've seen automated roulette and blackjack tables. It especially doesn't make sense to me for those games. It's safe to say you pretty much can't beat the house on those games, so making the action go faster just makes you lose faster. Can you imagine automated craps? Ridiculous!