Batman saved Gotham City, and now he’s come to save Vegas’ economy. How’s he going to do it? Slot machines.

Nevada-based slot maker IGT debuted its Dark Knight slots at the G2E Gaming Expo this week. They’re spectacular. They make Wheel of Fortune slots look like tic-tac-toe. They’re fun to play and fun to watch. (Of course, you can only watch your friends and family play a slot for so long before you need to play it yourself.)

I wasn’t impressed with IGT’s American Idol slots, though. Awkwardly, they feature retired judges Simon Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuardi. Perhaps IGT should stick to beloved, canceled shows.

Apart from IGT, this year’s G2E highlights included Korteck’s glasses-free 3D monitors (How the hell do they work?!), 3M’s Projection Tables (a slightly less impressive incarnation of Minority Report’s computer interfaces), Shuffle Master’s booth model’s cleavage and DigiDeal’s booth models’ cleavage.

DigiDeal’s computerized Classic Blackjack game didn’t do much for me. Especially not when compared with Interblock’s computerized Organic Blackjack game. The difference? Interblock’s table has real cards, which are shuffled and “dealt” by robot fingers.

Oh, I know the physical cards don’t make any real difference in game play, but their presence is soothing.

Still more soothing: a real dealer. If I’m playing blackjack against a real dealer, and I accidentally hit 20, the dealer will ask me whether I’m sure. When playing against the Organic Blackjack table at G2E, I hit 20 and was dealt a card without delay.

I should mention: The card was an ace.