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US 9,789,385 B2Granted
Card handling apparatus
AssigneeShuffle Master, Inc.
InventorsErnst Blaha, Peter Krenn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A card feed system for feeding cards into a card handling system. The card feed system includes a card input compartment with a playing card support surface, a front wall, a rear wall and two side walls. The playing card support surface slopes toward the front wall at an angle between 12 degrees and 22 degrees. A slot is provided in the front wall to allow single cards to pass into the card handling system. The card feed system also includes a card moving system to advance cards through the slot.
Claims20
A card handling apparatus comprising:
- a card holding area;
- an opening through a wall of the card holding area for passage of cards from the card holding area therethrough;
- a card mover comprising a plurality of rollers positioned to provide a declining card path slope toward the opening;
- and
- a blocking element movable between a first position to prevent one or more cards from passing from the card holding area through the opening and a second position to allow one or more cards to pass from the card holding area through the opening.
2 more elements
A card handling apparatus comprising:
- a card holding area;
- a substantially horizontal exit slot through a wall of the card holding area for passage of cards from the card holding area therethrough;
- a gravity feed system for facilitating movement of cards from the card holding area along a card path through the exit slot, the gravity feed system comprising a declining card path slope toward the exit slot provided by a plurality of rollers located along the card path at different elevations;
- and
- at least one blocking element movable between a first position to prevent one or more cards from passing from the card holding area through the exit slot and a second position to allow one or more cards to pass from the card holding area through the exit slot.
2 more elements
A card handling apparatus comprising:
- a card shuffling mechanism comprising a plurality of compartments;
- a card input area located and positioned to feed cards toward an aligned compartment of the shuffling mechanism;
- an opening through a wall of the card input area for passage of one or more cards from the card input area therethrough;
- a card mover comprising a plurality of rollers spaced along a declining card path toward the opening and rotatable about horizontal axes transverse to the card path toward the opening;
- and
- a blocking element movable between a first position to prevent cards from passing from the card input area through the opening and a second position to allow cards to pass from the card input area through the opening.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.