Gaming equipment for professional use of table games with playing cards and gaming chips, in particular for the game of "black jack"

A gaming apparatus for a game of chance played with playing cards and gaming chips, each of said playing cards having a card value imprint located at a predetermined position thereon, said gaming apparatus comprising

• a gaming table and a gaming table cloth (51) arranged on the gaming table, said gaming table cloth provided with betting boxes (53) and areas (54) designated for placement of said gaming chips (41) and other areas (55,56) designated for placement of said playing cards (3);
• a card shoe (1) for storage of one or more decks of said playing cards, said card shoe including means for drawing individual ones (3') of said playing cards face down so that said card value imprint is not visible to a player of the game of chance;
• card recognition means for recognizing said card value imprint (31) on said individual ones (3') of said playing cards (3) drawn from said card shoe when said individual ones (3') of said playing cards are drawn from said card shoe, said card recognition means being located in said card shoe;
• an occupation detector unit including means for registering a count of said gaming chips (41) placed on said betting boxes (53) and said areas (54) and another count of said playing cards (3) placed on said other areas (55,56) on said table cloth (51), said occupation detector unit being located under said table cloth (51) and consisting of multiple single detectors allocated to each of said betting boxes (53), each of said areas (54) for said chips (41) and each of said other areas (55,56) for said playing cards (3) respectively;
• a gaming bet detector for automatic recognition of gaming bets or for manual input of the gaming bets;
• and
• a computer including means for evaluating the play of said game of chance according to the rules of said game of chance, means for storing results of said play of said game of chance and means for displaying a course of said play of said game of chance and said results from electronic signals input from said gaming bet detector, said occupation detector unit and said card recognition means;
• wherein said card recognition means comprises
• an optical window (11) arranged along a movement path of the card image imprint (31) on a drawn one of said playing cards (3) that is drawn in said card shoe;
• a pulsed light source (5) for illuminating a portion of said drawn one of said playing cards (3) located opposite said optical window (11);
• a CCD image converter (4) for said portion of said drawn one of said playing cards (3) located opposite said optical window (11);
• an optical device for deflecting and transmitting a reflected image of said card value imprint (31) from said drawn one of said playing cards (3) to said CCD image converter (4) from said portion of said drawn one of said playing cards when said drawn one of said playing cards is exactly in a correct drawn position opposite said optical window;
• and
• sensor means for detecting movement of said drawn card (3') and for providing a correct timing for operation of said pulsed light source for transmission of said reflected image to said CCD image converter when said individual one of said playing cards is in said correctly drawn position.