Playing cards with separable components

• US 20060001217A1
• Filed: 06/28/2005
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming International Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Soltys, Richard, Huizinga, Richard, Fleckenstein, Allen
• Granted Patent: US 7,510,194 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/292
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/02 Cards; Special shapes of cards card-printing methods B41K, B41M
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/06 Card games appurtenances
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2001/022 Manufacturing of cards
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2003/00826 Changeable playing pieces
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2419 Optical
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/242 Bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2489 by radio transmitters, e.g. using RFID
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2250/602 with adhesive
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06046 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2019/06225 using wavelength selection, e.g. colour code

Abstract

The present discussion generally describes separable playing cards that can be reassembled, methods of separating and reassembling the playing cards, and methods of using the playing cards in a gaming environment. The playing cards are combined from constituent components, which are a face and a back. The face can have a suit marking, a rank marking, or both. The combination of any given face and back represents a pairing. This pairing can be changed or reconfigured by separating the face from the back and reordering at least the faces or the backs. The reordered faces and backs can be assembled back into respective playing cards and used in a subsequent card game. The reordering can be done manually, mechanically, or computationally generated. The playing cards can include unique identifiers that can be read by a machine and used to verify that a sufficient number of the original pairings have been altered.

Claims

1. A playing card comprising:

a face comprising a face surface and an attachment surface opposed to the face surface, the face surface bearing at least one human-readable suit marking and at least one human-readable rank marking;

a back comprising a back surface and an attachment surface opposed to the back surface, the back surface bearing a non-unique pattern that is substantially identical for each card in at least one set of fifty-two playing cards; and

a bonding substance applied between at least a portion of one of the face surface and the back surface to temporarily attach the face with the back.

2. The playing card of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one identifying mark in the form of a machine-readable symbol carried on at least one of the constituent playing card components.

3. The playing card of claim 2 wherein the identifying mark is printed on the one card member with an ink substance that is visible only when exposed to ultraviolet light.

4. The playing card of claim 2 wherein at least a portion of the identifying mark encodes a unique serial number.

5. The playing card of claim 1 wherein the bonding substance is a pressure sensitive adhesive.

6. The playing card of claim 1 wherein the bonding substance is a wax based material.

7. The playing card of claim 1 wherein at least one of the faces and the backs is made from a paper-based product.

8. The playing card of claim 1 wherein at least one of the faces and the backs is made from a vinyl-based product.

9. The playing card of claim 1 wherein at least one of the faces and the backs is made from a plastic-based material.

10. The playing card of claim 9 wherein the plastic-based material is cellulose acetate.

11. The playing card of claim 1, further comprising:

a coating applied to at least a portion of at least one of the faces and the backs.

12. A device for separating a playing card, the playing card having a face comprising a face surface and a first attachment surface opposed from the face surface, the face surface carrying at least one human-readable rank marking and at least one human-readable suit marking, a back having a back surface and an attachment surface opposed from the back surface, the back surface carrying a non-unique pattern, the device comprising:

means for guiding the playing card along a path;

means for driving the playing card along the path; and

means for applying a separating force while the playing card is driven down the path, the separating force being sufficient to dislodge the face from the back along a shear plane.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein driving the playing card along the path comprises directing the playing card between two adjacently located pinch rollers located proximate to the path.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein applying the separating force while the playing card is driven down the path includes inserting a blade between the attachment surface of the face and the attachment surface of the back.

15. The device of claim 12 wherein applying the separating force while the playing card is driven down the path further includes:

attaching the face to a first gripper and attaching the back to a second gripper; and

moving either gripper in a direction away from the other respective gripper.

16. The device of claim 12, further comprising:

means for applying heat to the playing card to at least weaken a bonding substance located between the attachment surface of the face and the attachment surface of the back.

17. A method of reconfiguring a playing card, the playing card having a first face comprising a face surface and a first attachment surface opposed from the face surface, the face surface carrying at least one human-readable rank marking and at least one human-readable suit marking, a first back having a back surface and an attachment surface opposed from the back surface, the back surface carrying a non-unique pattern, the method comprising:

receiving at least one playing card while the first face is at least temporarily attached to the first back; and

separating the first face from the first back.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the first face is at least temporarily attached to the first back with a wax-based material and wherein separating the first face from the first back includes applying heat to lower the viscosity of the wax-based material.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein separating the first face from the first back includes inserting a blade between the first attachment surface of the first face and the attachment surface of the first back to mechanically sever at least some bonds formed by a bonding agent.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein separating the first face from the first back includes moving the first face relative to the first back along a shear plane to overcome the shear strength of a bonding agent.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein separating the first face from the first back further includes:

applying a separating force to the first face in a first direction;

applying a separating force to the first back in a second direction, the second direction generally opposed to the first direction; and

moving at least one of the first face and the first back along a shear plane with respect to the other one of the first face and the first back.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

obtaining a second face, the second face having a face surface and an attachment surface opposed from the face surface, the face surface of the second face carrying at least one rank marking and at least one suit marking appearing thereon;

attaching the attachment surface of the second face to the attachment surface of the first back; and

disposing of the first face.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

obtaining a second back, the second back having a back surface and an attachment surface opposed from the back surface, the back surface of the second face bearing a non-unique pattern;

attaching the attachment surface of the second back to the attachment surface of the first face; and

disposing of the first back.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

obtaining a second face, the second face having a face surface and an attachment surface opposed from the face surface, the face surface carrying at least a rank marking and a suit marking;

obtaining a second back, the second back having a back surface and an attachment surface opposed from the back surface, the back surface bearing a non-unique pattern;

attaching the attachment surface of the second face to the attachment surface of the first back; and

attaching the attachment surface of the second back to the attachment surface of the first face.

25. A method of assembling a reconfigurable playing card for use in a card game, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of faces, each face having a face surface and an attachment surface;

receiving a plurality of backs, each of the backs to be matched with a respective one of the faces, the backs having back surface opposed from an attachment surface; and

for each of a number of backs, attaching the attachment surface of the back with the attachment surface of the respective one of the face to assemble a quantity of playing cards.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

mechanically ordering the faces according to a defined order.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

mechanically shuffling at least some of the backs before attaching the backs with the faces.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

mechanically shuffling at least some of the faces before attaching the faces with the backs.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

physically removing a pre-printed face from a playing card storage device.

30. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

for each of a number of faces, printing the face surface with at least one rank and at least one suit according to a defined.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

physically removing the back from a stack of preprinted backs.