Methods and apparatuses for an automatic card handling device and communication networks including same

A network of card handling devices, comprising:

• a plurality of automatic card handling devices, each card handling device of the plurality comprising:
• a shuffling apparatus with a controller, the shuffling apparatus configured for shuffling an input set of cards and delivering randomly ordered cards resulting from the shuffling and the controller configured for determining shuffler operational data indicating functionality parameters of the shuffling apparatus and shuffler usage data indicating usage parameters of the shuffling apparatus;
• and
• a communication module operably coupled to the controller and configured for sending at least one of the shuffler operational data and the shuffler usage data across a communication port to a server;
• and
• a communication network operably coupled to the communication port of each card handling device of the plurality and the server.

A network of card handling devices comprising:

• a local communication network, comprising:
• a plurality of automatic card handling devices, each automatic card handling device of the plurality comprising:
• a shuffling apparatus configured for shuffling an input set of cards and delivering randomly ordered cards resulting from the shuffling and configured for determining shuffler operational data indicating functionality parameters of the shuffling apparatus and shuffler usage data indicating usage parameters of the shuffling apparatus;
• a detection module configured for recognizing a rank and suit of each card of the delivered cards prior to removal of the cards from the shuffling apparatus;
• and
• a communication module operably coupled to the detection module and configured for sending information related to respective of maintenance of the at least one automatic card handling device, repair of the respective automatic card handling device, the shuffler operational data, and the shuffler usage data to one or more local communication networks of the at least one local communication network;
• and
• at least one local server operably coupled to local communication network and wherein the at least one local server is configured to send and receive information over the local communication network.

A method of operating a network of automatic card handling devices, comprising:

• establishing a communication link across a communication network between a plurality of automatic card handling devices and at least one server;
• transmitting a service request from at least one automatic card handling device of the plurality of automatic card handling devices to the at least one server across the communication network;
• and
• transmitting at least one of shuffler operational data and shuffler usage data from the at least one automatic card handling device of the plurality across the communication network, wherein the shuffler operational data includes functionality parameters of the at least one automatic card handling device and the shuffler usage data includes usage parameters of the at least one automatic card handling device.