The $500 shufflers are nice. But they are
slower than shuffling by hand, especially if you have a two-deck system.
If you have a two-deck system, then here's what's involved: pass the deck. A two-deck home shuffling system is as fast as a casino grade shuffler.
The $10k casino shufflers involve pushing a button, inserting the old deck, and removing the new deck. That's it. The machine opens, closes, and shuffles automatically, and there are never two decks on the table simultaneously.
The $500 home shufflers involve opening the lid, removing the new deck, inserting the old deck, closing the lid, and pushing a button.
This may seem like not much difference, but it really is. With a casino shuffler you can press the button as you're squaring up the mucked deck. Once you pick up the fresh deck you can cut and deal as the machine automatically closes and starts to shuffle. With the home shuffler you need to manually do everything (which means you can't multi-task as the machine opens or closes), and you have to go back and forth with the decks you're handling, which no only takes up more time, but increases the risk of exposing a bottom card.
Granted, you could enlist others to help out, but now you have to get two people working together and remembering to pay attention every hand. And isn't the whole point of this to make it less work and bother?
But they do look cool.
http://www.howtoshuffle.com/ ... Spend 10-20 minutes on this and you'll be able to shuffle as quickly as it takes someone to muck about with the auto-shuffler. Best of all, you can use it at other games, and it's free.