Philadelphia Hosts World Bridge Series Championships

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia plays host to the 13th annual World Bridge Series Championships starting today.

Four thousand card players from about 80 countries will be participating in the competition during the next two weeks at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Who knew that there was technology involved in a bridge competition, including electronic card shufflers hooked up to a computer to make every table get the exact same cards in the exact same order. The cards are then place in special holders and dealt out to the tables.
Jose Damiani of Paris is the president of the World Bridge Federation. He says other gadgetry is involved.

"We display the score on the video screens. We use the internet a lot because we broadcast the results everywhere in the world. We also have a small machine on every table where the player enters the score."

According to the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, it was a partnership to get the championships here and that Mayor Nutter had a big part in it.

The total economic impact for Philadelphia is estimated at almost $13 million.

Reported By: John McDevitt, KYW Newsradio