Playing card shuffler
First Claim
1. An apparatus for randomly shuffling a plurality of playing cards used in gaming, comprising:
- a card rest having a top surface adapted to support the cards in their unshuffled state;
a card aperture formed in the card rest and adapted to allow passage therethrough of only one card at a time by means of gravity;
an exciter adapted to impact vibratory action in the supported cards;
a card receiver comprising at least one guide portion that defines a card space adapted to temporarily receive the playing card dropped through the card aperture prior to its delivery to a card collector as a randomly shuffled card, wherein an upper edge of the received card within the card receiver is substantially flush with the card rest top surface to substantially block the card aperture; and
a positioner adapted to randomly reposition the unshuffled cards relative to the card aperture.
16 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus is for shuffling a plurality of playing cards used in gaming. The apparatus includes a card support adapted to support the unshuffled cards on-edge. An exciter is also included, and is adapted to impart vibrational action to the supported cards. Cards drop in a random fashion such as by controlling the relative position of the cards and passage through one or more card slots in a card rest. In at least some of the apparatus, a medial receiver is adapted to receive at least one card dropped from the card support and to retain the at least one received card to substantially block a card slot to prevent further cards from dropping. A positioner is preferably included to change a relative position of the unshuffled deck and card slots though which the cards drop.
377 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An apparatus for randomly shuffling a plurality of playing cards used in gaming, comprising:
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a card rest having a top surface adapted to support the cards in their unshuffled state; a card aperture formed in the card rest and adapted to allow passage therethrough of only one card at a time by means of gravity; an exciter adapted to impact vibratory action in the supported cards; a card receiver comprising at least one guide portion that defines a card space adapted to temporarily receive the playing card dropped through the card aperture prior to its delivery to a card collector as a randomly shuffled card, wherein an upper edge of the received card within the card receiver is substantially flush with the card rest top surface to substantially block the card aperture; and a positioner adapted to randomly reposition the unshuffled cards relative to the card aperture. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus for randomly shuffling a plurality of playing cards used in gaming;
- comprising;
at least one card support adapted to support the cards on-edge in their unshuffled state; an exciter adapted to impart vibratory action to the supported cards; a card receiver adapted to receive only one card released at a time from the at least one card support, and to temporarily retain the received card, prior to its delivery to a card collector as a randomly shuffled card, in a manner to substantially block the passage of the next card from the at least one card support; and a positioner adapted to randomly reposition the supported cards relative to the card receiver. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
- comprising;
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12. A method of randomly shuffling a plurality of playing cards used in gaming, comprising:
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supporting the cards on a surface in their unshuffled state; imparting vibratory action to the supported cards; allowing only one supported card to drop at a time into a card receiver prior to its delivery to a card collector as a randomly shuffled card; in response to allowing the supported card to drop, temporarily retaining the dropped card within the card receiver to substantially block passage of the next card from the support surface; and in response to retaining the card, randomly repositioning the supported cards relative to the retained card. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus for randomly shuffling a plurality of playing cards, comprising:
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at least one card support for supporting playing cards on-edge in their unshuffled state; at least one aperture in the at least one card support through which playing cards may drop one at a time; at least one exciter adapted to impart vibrational activity in playing cards positioned on the at least one card support; at least one receptacle for receiving cards that pass through the at least one aperture as randomly shuffled cards. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for randomly shuffling playing cards comprising:
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placing the playing cards upon a card support in their unshuffled state; vibrating the playing cards positioned on the card support to impart vibratory action to the supported playing cards; controllably dropping the playing cards through at least one support drop slot one at a time; changing positions of the vibrating cards with respect to at least one drop slot formed within the card support to randomly cause playing cards to drop through the at least one drop slot; and collecting cards in at least one collector to produce randomly shuffled cards. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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Specification