Card handling apparatus and associated methods
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A card handling method, comprising:
- receiving playing cards in a card holding area of a card handling apparatus, the card holding area having an exit slot in a wall thereof and a support structure comprising a sloped base plate;
separating an upper portion of the playing cards from a lower portion of the playing cards by resting the upper portion of the playing cards against the wall and over extendable and recessable pins proximate the wall and stopping some of the lower portion of the playing cards against the pins;
moving the playing cards from the card holding area using a gravity feed system by;
permitting passage of at least one lowermost playing card of the lower portion of the playing cards unstopped against the pins through the exit slot into a randomly aligned compartment of a card shuffling structure of the card handling apparatus, an opening defined between opposing side surfaces of the compartment of the card shuffling structure being generally coplanar with the sloped base plate of a support structure of the card holding area when the compartment is in an aligned position with the card holding area.
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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.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A card handling method, comprising:
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receiving playing cards in a card holding area of a card handling apparatus, the card holding area having an exit slot in a wall thereof and a support structure comprising a sloped base plate; separating an upper portion of the playing cards from a lower portion of the playing cards by resting the upper portion of the playing cards against the wall and over extendable and recessable pins proximate the wall and stopping some of the lower portion of the playing cards against the pins; moving the playing cards from the card holding area using a gravity feed system by; permitting passage of at least one lowermost playing card of the lower portion of the playing cards unstopped against the pins through the exit slot into a randomly aligned compartment of a card shuffling structure of the card handling apparatus, an opening defined between opposing side surfaces of the compartment of the card shuffling structure being generally coplanar with the sloped base plate of a support structure of the card holding area when the compartment is in an aligned position with the card holding area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A card handling apparatus, comprising:
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a card holding area configured to hold a stack of playing cards and having a card support structure sloped toward an exit slot in a wall; extendable and recessable pins located proximate and above the exit slot, the pins configured and positioned to separate an upper portion of the stack of playing cards resting against the wall and over the pins from some of a lower portion of the playing cards of the stack of playing cards stopped against the pins, the exit slot sized to permit passage therethrough of at least one playing card of the lowermost portion below the pins; and a card shuffling structure comprising a rotatable carousel adjacent to the card holding area and comprising compartments randomly alignable with cards moving from the card holding area through the exit slot. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification