Automatic shoe loading mechanism

A shoe loading mechanism for maintaining a continuous supply of randomized playing cards within a multi-card shoe, the mechanism comprising:

• a multi-card shoe having a shoe cavity including walls for containing a stored stack of randomized cards and a surface for resting upon a playing card surface of a casino table;
• one shoe wall comprising a draw plate having a finger opening for receiving a dealer's finger and including an adjacent opening for withdrawing one card at a time from the shoe cavity;
• a sensor that is monitored by a microcontroller for counting the withdrawn cards;
• the shoe cavity including a support for biasing the stored stack of cards against an inner surface of the draw plate as cards accumulate within the shoe cavity;
• the shoe cavity having an opening for receiving randomized cards from an elevator carriage;
• the elevator carriage raising the randomized cards from an elevation below the shoe cavity;
• the elevator carriage having a single support plane for supporting the randomized cards;
• the elevator carriage support plane transiting from an elevation below the playing card surface of the casino table to an elevation above the playing card surface;
• a shuttle for moving cards from the elevator carriage into the shoe cavity;
• the elevator carriage raising randomized cards to an elevation interceptable by the shuttle after a randomization operation has been completed;
• the shuttle moves along a linear path that is parallel to card faces of the randomized cards residing on the elevator carriage;
• the shuttle having a surface for contacting edges of the randomized cards residing upon the elevator carriage;
• the shuttle movement taking place at an elevation above the stored stack of cards;
• the elevator carriage elevation remaining below the shuttle;
• wherein the shuttle maintains a continuous supply of multiple cards within the shoe cavity by moving cards from the elevator carriage into the shoe when the card count within the shoe is reduced below a certain threshold number.