Card handling devices and methods of using such devices
AssigneeSHFL entertainment, Inc.
InventorRodney G. Johnson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A card-handling device reads a suit and value of individual cards that are moved through the card-handling device. Reading of the cards is effected after the cards have been received into a card holding area and before the cards have been delivered into a card collection area from which cards are removed from the card-handling device for use. The read suit and rank are then sent to a processor, wherein the processor identifies whether any card is a card that should be rejected from the card-handling device and the card-handling device then rejecting that card from the card-handling device.
Claims20
A card-handling device, comprising:
- a card holding area and a card collecting area;
- a magazine configured to temporarily store cards between the card holding area and the card collecting area;
- a reject mechanism positioned to reject a card before it is delivered to the magazine;
- a sensor positioned to read suit and rank of each card before it is delivered to the magazine;
- and
- a processor operatively connected to the sensor and the reject mechanism, wherein the processor is operatively connected to receive suit and rank information from the sensor, and wherein the processor is programmed to identify whether a read card should be rejected and cause the reject mechanism to reject the read card from the card-handling device.
An automatic card shuffler, comprising:
- a card holding area;
- a card randomization area;
- a card transfer mechanism configured to move cards from the card holding area to the card randomization area;
- a card reading mechanism located between the card holding area and the card randomization area configured to read rank and suit of cards;
- a reject mechanism positioned between the card holding area and the card randomization area, the reject mechanism being configured to reject a card before being delivered to the card randomization area;
- and
- a processor in information communication with the card reading mechanism and the reject mechanism, wherein the processor is programmed to identify whether any read card should be rejected from the card shuffler and to cause the reject mechanism to reject that card from the card shuffler.
A method of handling cards in a card-handling device, comprising:
- transferring cards from a card holding area into a magazine configured to temporarily store cards using a card transfer mechanism;
- reading rank and suit of cards being transferred by the card transfer mechanism before the cards are delivered to the magazine using a sensor positioned between the card holding area and the magazine;
- sending the read suit and rank of cards to a processor operatively connected to the sensor and the reject mechanism;
- identifying a card for rejection using a processor;
- and
- causing a reject mechanism positioned between the card holding area and the magazine to reject the card identified for rejection by controlling the reject mechanism with the processor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.