Card shuffler with user game selection input

• US 20050146093A1
• Filed: 02/15/2005
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: SHFL Entertainment Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Swanson, Ronald R., Bourbour, Feraidoon, Grauzer, Attila, Nelson, Troy D., Rynda, Robert J., Scheper, Paul K., Stasson, James Bernard
• Granted Patent: US 7,338,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/149.R
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/14 Card dealers

Abstract

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for moving playing cards from a first group of cards into plural hands of cards, wherein each of the hands contains a random arrangement of cards. The apparatus comprises a card receiver for receiving the first group of cards, a single stack of card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the card receiver, the stack generally vertically movable, an elevator for moving the stack, a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the stack, and a microprocessor that controls the card-moving mechanism and the elevator so that an individual card is moved into an identified compartment. The number of compartments receiving cards and the number of cards moved to each compartment may be selected. An apparatus for feeding cards, comprising a surface for supporting a stack of cards, a feed roller with a frictional outer surface, a drive mechanism for causing rotation of the feed roller, a pair of speed-up rollers to advance the cards out of the feed roller, and a clutch mechanism for disengaging the feed roller from the drive mechanism as the card comes into contact with the speed up rollers.

Claims

1-35. -35. (canceled)

36. An automatic card shuffler comprising:

a card infeed area, the area accepting a group of cards to be randomized;

a card feeder capable of moving cards from the card infeed area to a shuffling mechanism;

a card shuffling mechanism, whereby an order of fed cards is randomized, and at least one random hand of cards is formed;

a card removing device, the device moving the at least one random hand of cards into a delivery tray,

a delivery tray;

a microprocessor programmable to control operation of the shuffler; and

a user input device for selecting game information.

37. The shuffler of claim 36, wherein the game information is selected from the group consisting of game names, and numbers of cards per hand.

38. The card shuffler of claim 36, and further comprising a display in communication with the microprocessor for displaying game information.

39. The device of claim 36, wherein the card shuffling mechanism comprises a plurality of compartments, each compartment capable of receiving at least one card from the card infeed area.

40. The device of claim 39, wherein the card shuffling mechanism further comprises an elevator capable of raising and lowering the plurality of compartments in alignment with the card feeder.

41. The device of claim 39, wherein the card feeder moves cards individually from the card infeed area to a randomly selected compartment.

42. The device of claim 41, wherein the card-removing device removes a hand of randomized cards from a compartment and delivers the hand to the delivery tray.

43. A method of delivering hands of cards to a card game, comprising:

providing a computer controlled card-shuffling device capable of randomizing cards and forming at least one hand of randomized cards, wherein the device further comprises a user input for selecting at least one of an identity of a game and a number of cards per hand;

loading a group of cards into the card-shuffling device;

selecting at least one of a selected game and a number of cards per hand; and

automatically delivering at least one hand of cards.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the shuffling device forms plural hands of cards.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein at least one of selected game and cards per hand is displayed on a display device in communication with the microprocessor.

46. An automatic card shuffler comprising:

a card infeed area;

a card shuffling apparatus, whereby an order of cards received into the card infeed area is randomized;

a feed mechanism capable of moving cards from the card infeed area to the shuffling apparatus;

a microprocessor capable of controlling the operation of the shuffler; and

a game selection device capable of being set to operate in a one of a plurality of selected game modes.

47. The automatic card shuffler of claim 46, wherein the card shuffling apparatus comprises a plurality of shuffling compartments.

48. The automatic card shuffler of claim 46, wherein the selected game modes includes games with different numbers of cards per hand.

49. The automatic card shuffler of claim 46, further comprising an output tray and a second feed mechanism for moving cards from the shuffling apparatus to the output tray.