CARD HANDLING APPARATUS

• US 20180036627A1
• Filed: 10/16/2017
• Published: 02/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shuffle Master GMBH & Co KG (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Shuffle Master GMBH & Co KG (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Blaha, Ernst, Krenn, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 10,220,297 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/10 Card holders
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 11/0002 Dispensing or collecting devices for tokens or chips dispensers for game pieces in chain reaction games A63F9/28; coin freed apparatus for games G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00

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.

Claims

1. A card handling method, comprising:

placing playing cards in a card holding area of a card handling apparatus; and

moving playing cards from the card holding area using a gravity feed system to place the playing cards into randomly aligned compartments of a card shuffling structure of the card handling apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein moving playing cards from the card holding area using a gravity feed system comprises supporting the playing cards on a support structure sloped toward a card exit from the card holding area.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein supporting the playing cards of a support structure sloped toward the card exit comprises supporting the playing cards on a support structure sloped at an angle between 12°

and 20°

to the horizontal.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein moving playing cards from the card holding area comprises moving playing cards through a card exit configured as a slot to permit passage therethrough of only one playing card.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein placing cards in the card holding area comprises stacking cards in the card holding area, and moving playing cards from the card holding area further comprises contacting an underside of a lowermost card in the stack with at least one roller exposed through a base plate of the support structure.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising selectively blocking the card exit to prevent playing cards from moving from the card holding area.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein selectively blocking the card exit comprises moving a blocking element between a first position to prevent one or more cards from passing from the card holding area through the exit and a second position to allow one or more cards to pass from the card holding area through the exit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein moving playing cards from the card holding area using a gravity feed system into randomly aligned compartments of a card shuffling structure of the card handling apparatus comprises moving playing cards into randomly aligned compartments of a card storage structure comprising a rotatable carousel.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising moving at least one card into a compartment having another card previously placed into the compartment.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading with an optical sensor at least one of a rank and a suit of each card moving from the card holding area toward the card shuffling structure.

11. A card handling apparatus, comprising:

a card holding area configured to hold a stack of playing cards and having a card support structure sloped toward an exit; and

a card shuffling structure adjacent to the card holding area and comprising compartments randomly alignable with cards moving from the card holding area through the exit.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the card support structure is sloped at an angle between 12°

and 20°

to the horizontal.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the exit is configured as a slot to permit passage therethrough of only one playing card.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the card support structure comprises at least one roller exposed through a sloped base plate.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising structure for selectively preventing playing cards from moving through the exit.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein structure for selectively preventing playing cards from moving through the exit comprises a blocking element between a first position to prevent one or more cards from passing from the card holding area through the exit and a second position to allow one or more cards to pass from the card holding area through the exit.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the card shuffling structure comprises a rotatable carousel.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the compartments of the card storage structure are each sized to hold more than one card.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the card shuffling structure is configured to move the compartments vertically.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising an optical sensor located to read at least one of a rank and a suit of each card passing between the exit and a compartment of the card shuffling structure.