Modular dealing shoe for casino table card games

• US 20090054161A1
• Filed: 08/04/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Downs, Justin G. III, Schubert, Oliver M., Grauzer, Atilla, Kelly, James V.
• Granted Patent: US 9,289,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/47
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/14 Card dealers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/18 Score computers; Miscellaneous indicators time-testing devices G07C
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2001/003 Blackjack; Twenty one
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2001/008 adapted for being playable on a screen

Abstract

A playing card delivery shoe is used in the play of the casino table card game of blackjack is disclosed. The shoe may comprise a) an area for receiving a first set of playing cards useful in the play of the casino table card game of blackjack; b) first card mover that moves playing cards from the first set to a playing card staging area wherein at least one playing card is staged in an order by which playing cards are removed from the first set of and moved to the playing card staging area; c) second playing card mover that moves playing cards from the playing card staging area to a delivery area wherein playing cards removed from the staging area to the delivery shoe are moved in the same order by which playing cards were removed from the first set of playing cards and moved to the playing card staging area; and d) playing card reading sensors that read at least one playing card value of each playing card separately after each playing card has been removed from the area for receiving the first set of playing cards and before removal from the playing card delivery area. There is a communication link between the playing card reading sensors and a processor, and the processor analyzes said data and displays certain game-related data on a display device.

Claims

1. A casino table card game playing system comprising:

a playing card delivery shoe from which playing cards may be dealt a display screen, a processor within the playing card delivery shoe, the system for use in the play of the casino table card game of blackjack, the delivery shoe comprising

a) an area for receiving a first set of playing cards useful in the play of the casino table card game of blackjack;

b) first card mover that moves playing cards from the first set to a playing card staging area wherein at least one playing card is staged in an order by which playing cards are removed from the first set of and moved to the playing card staging area;

c) second playing card mover that moves playing cards from the playing card staging area to a delivery area wherein playing cards removed from the staging area to the delivery shoe are moved in the same order by which playing cards were removed from the first set of playing cards and moved to the playing card staging area; and

d) playing card reading sensors that read at least one playing card value of each playing card separately after each playing card has been removed from the area for receiving the first set of playing cards and before removal from the playing card delivery area;

wherein the playing card reading sensors are in communication with the processor, which processor analyses and displays game-related information on at least one display screen.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one card but less then an entire deck of cards is present in the staging area.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein from 1 to 2 cards are present in the staging area.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the game-related information displayed relates to a composition of cards remaining in the shoe.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the displayed information is selected from the group consisting of:

cut card presence, stop card delivery state, door open, misdeal, continue to deal, stop card delivery routine, deck verified, supervisor swipe, continue to deal, hand outcome, player instructions, history of player hand results, game outcome, game rules, hand count, advertising, player announcements, deck counts, running card count, true card count, ace card count and house advantage.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein a system of comparison is present to compare the value of the playing cards read in step d) with stored values of cards to determine cards remaining in the shoe.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the display device is remote from the gaming table.

8. The system of claim 1 and further comprising a card-reading discard rack, and a dealer round count indicator, the discard rack and round count indicator also communicatively linked to a processor external to the delivery shoe, and information relating to hand composition and historical events of game play is displayed.

9. The system of claim 1, and further comprising a G-Mod in communication with the dealing shoe, wherein the G-Mod sends data collected from the card reading sensors to an external processor via a network connection.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor communicatively linked with the display screen receives information from the delivery shoe relating to at least card rank and provides the display screen with card rank display information for playing cards dealt during a round of play of blackjack.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein a house advantage is displayed.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein a section of the display provides streaming video unrelated to immediate play of the casino table card game.

11. (canceled)

12. (canceled)

15. A blackjack gaming system comprising a processor, a display panel in communication link with the processor and a card dealing shoe for use in the play of the casino table card game of blackjack in communication with the processor, the card storage shoe comprising:

a card infeed area where an approximately vertical set of playing cards one major surface up and one major surface down, can be seated,

a playing card moving element that moves one playing card at-a-time from the approximately vertical set of playing cards,

an automatic mechanical transporting system for horizontally transporting individual ones of playing cards moved from the vertical set of playing cards to a playing card delivery area, and

a playing card reading system that reads at least value of playing cards before playing cards become stationary in the playing card delivery area, and the value of playing cards read is used to display information relating to the game of blackjack.

16. The shoe of claim 15 wherein a buffer area is present between the playing card infeed area and the playing card delivery area and at least some playing cards remain stationary for a time in the buffer area before being delivered to the playing card delivery area and only one playing card may be present in the playing card buffer area at any time.

17. The shoe of claim 16 wherein playing cards are read in the shoe as they enter the playing card buffer area or when the playing cards are within the playing card buffer area.

18. The shoe of claim 15 wherein there is a communication link between the playing card reading sensors and a processor, which processor processes at least one of the following forms of information:

cut card presence, stop card delivery state, door open, misdeal, continue to deal, stop card delivery routine, hand outcome, player instructions, history of player hand results, game outcome, game rules, hand count, advertising, player announcements, deck counts, running card count, true card count, ace card count and house advantage.

19. A method of providing cards to a dealer in the casino table card game of blackjack for manual delivery of the cards by a dealer from a card delivery device comprising:

placing a set of cards within a card infeed area of a card delivery device;

mechanically moving cards in the order in which cards are removed from the set of cards from the set of cards from the card infeed area to a card delivery area of the card delivery device where at least some cards become stationary;

reading individual cards for at least value data after the cards are removed from the card infeed area and before the cards become stationary in the card delivery area;

wherein there is a communication link between card reading sensors in the card delivery device and a processor, which processor analyzes said at least value data and displays displayable information based on analyzed at least value data on a display device.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the displayable information comprises at least one of:

cut card presence, stop card delivery state, door open, misdeal, continue to deal, stop card delivery routine, hand outcome, player instructions, history of player hand results, game outcome, game rules, hand count, advertising, player announcements, deck counts, running card count, true card count, ace card count and house advantage

21. The method of claim 20 wherein visible information is displayed on the display screen to indicate specific activities required to be performed by the dealer.

22. (canceled)