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US 11,426,649 B2Granted
System and method for verifying the integrity of a deck of playing cards
AssigneeAgs LLC
InventorsRobert John Rynda, Terry Keith Walker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method of shuffling decks of cards is disclosed including verifying that the shuffled deck of cards has the same number of cards as the deck of cards had had when a manual verification process was performed at the initiation of use of the deck of cards. Using the measured weight of the deck of cards after completion of shuffling, the number of cards in the shuffled deck of cards is verified. A cut card may be introduced to reduce the possibility of exposing the hole card to view. Two decks of cards may be used in sequence so that a first deck of cards is being used to play the game of cards while the second deck of cards is being shuffled and verified.
Claims24
A system to prepare a deck of cards for play of a game of cards, comprising:
- a shuffler that accepts a deck of unshuffled cards in a card deck receiving area, processes the deck of unshuffled cards to produce a shuffled deck of cards having a randomized sequence of cards and deposits the shuffled deck of cards in a card deck dispensing area;
- and, receives a first deck of cards and a second deck of cards and individually processes each deck of cards in sequence to produce a first shuffled deck of cards or a second shuffled deck of cards for use in successive games of cards;
- the shuffler further including:
- the card deck receiving area;
- the card deck dispensing area;
- a cover disposed over the card dispensing area;
- a processor including a computer-readable memory;
- and
- a scale located in the card deck dispensing area and coupled to the processor to determine a measured weight of the first deck of cards or the second deck of cards in the card dispensing area,
- wherein a measured weight of the shuffled first deck of cards or the measured weight of the shuffled second deck of cards is used to determine a verification state of the shuffled first deck of cards or the shuffled second deck of cards, respectively;
- and, to open the cover to permit removal of the verified shuffled first deck of cards or the verified shuffled second deck of cards from the card deck dispensing area.
8 more elements
A card shuffler comprising:
- an electromechanical apparatus including a microprocessor and a computer readable memory, including:
- a card input area, sized and dimensioned to receive a deck of cards that has previously been verified;
- a card dispensing area, sized and shuffled deck of cards,
- wherein the apparatus is configured to determine a verified state of the shuffled deck of cards when a measured weight of the shuffled deck of cards in the card dispensing area compared with a deck of shuffled cards;
- weight of the verified deck of cards indicates that a number of cards in the shuffled deck of cards is equal to a same number of cards in the verified deck of cards;
- and
- an openable cover disposed over at least the card dispensing area, the openable cover configured to permit removal of the shuffled deck of cards from the card dispensing area when the shuffled deck of cards is in the verified state,
- wherein two decks of cards are used to play games of cards and a first deck of shuffled and verified cards is used in a game of cards while a second deck of verified cards is being shuffled and verified.
5 more elements
A method of verifying decks of shuffled cards that have been previously manually verified, comprising:
- providing a shuffler for randomizing a deck of playing cards for use in a game of cards, the shuffler being an electromechanical apparatus including a microprocessor and a computer readable memory;
- the shuffler further comprising:
- a card input area that is sized and dimensioned to accept the deck of playing cards;
- a card shuffling area that randomizes the deck of playing cards;
- and,
- a card output area for receiving the randomized deck of playing cards;
- an openable cover disposed over the card output area;
- the card output area further comprising a scale for weighing cards, coupled to the microprocessor;
- the method further comprising:
- shuffling a first deck of cards and a second deck of cards sequentially, with each shuffled deck used for playing a game of cards, the step of processing of the deck of cards comprising:
- receiving the deck of cards to be shuffled in the card input area;
- determining that the card output area is void of cards;
- randomizing the deck of cards in the card shuffling area and depositing the cards on the scale in the card output area;
- determining a weight measured by the scale in the card output area;
- and
- verifying that a number of cards in the shuffled deck of playing cards in the card output area has not changed from a last time the deck of cards was shuffled, using the measured weight, prior to opening the openable cover.
13 more elements
A apparatus to prepare a deck of cards for play of a game of cards, comprising:
- a processor including a computer-readable memory;
- a card deck receiving area;
- a card deck dispensing area;
- a card shuffling mechanism;
- an openable cover disposed over the card dispensing area whose state of open or closed is controlled by the processor;
- a card shuffler mechanism that accepts a deck of unshuffled cards in a card deck receiving area, processes the deck of unshuffled cards to produce a shuffled deck of cards having a randomized sequence of cards and deposits the shuffled deck of cards in the card deck dispensing area;
- a scale located in the card deck dispensing area and coupled to the processor;
- and
- the processor configured to determine a verification state of the shuffled deck of cards as one of verified or not verified based on a weight determined by the scale,
- wherein, when the verification state of the shuffled deck of cards is the verified state, the processor is further configured to permit the openable cover to be in an open state open so that the verified shuffled deck of cards is removable from the deck dispensing area.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.