Round of play counting in playing card shuffling system

Abstract

A casino table card gaming system comprises: at least one gaming table; and at least one playing card shuffler on or proximate to the gaming table. The shuffler provides a status signal associated with a specific stage of use of the shuffler in a casino table card game. The status signal is forwarded to a database that uses the signal as a basis for registering that a round of play of a casino table card game using playing cards from that shuffler is to be counted in a record of game usage for at least one of that shuffler or that casino table.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION DATA [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of both U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 967,500 filed Sep. 28, 2001 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 880,408, filed Jun. 28, 2004.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to the field of casino gaming, casino table gaming, casino table card gaming, and the tracking and monitoring at least one parameter of that gaming environment based upon shuffling events. BACKGROUND OF THE ART [0003] To encourage higher gross levels of wagering by players, casinos often extend complimentary goods and services to players in exchange for more active wagering. This is conventionally known as “comping” and the casino operators award players “comps.” Comps can be any redeemable forms of currency and / or currency equivalent typically issued (for promotional purposes) by casinos to their players in exchange for active, table game patronage. Such comps include points, club points, premium points, player...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Without question, player ratings based only on human observations are inaccurate.

Furthermore, the labor costs for the supervisors are expensive.

However, these systems are still dependent upon subjective assessments of time played, average wager, and house advantage.

However, these systems are still dependent upon the subjective assessment of average wager and house advantage.

As the slot machine has evolved, the features offered to players have become more complex and the potential combinations of gaming devices available to a gaming machine have increased.

First, the number of types of motherboards needed to accommodate all of the potential combinations of gaming devices has become large.

Second, the computational capability of the motherboard needed to drive all the devices has become large.

Third, when devices are added to augment the features of the gaming table or when devices are replaced for maintenance the steps necessary to rewire the device onto the motherboard and load the appropriate software onto the motherboard can be time consuming and require significant shutdown time for the gaming table.

As can be seen, even where there is some processing intelligence distributed around a gaming table, the underlying operation of the system remains a central command and response structure, which both requires high component costs and limits the operation of the system.

Each computer component, however, has limited communication capacity among each other and the intelligence of the shuffler has been limited.

The failure to appreciate the interrelationship of some of these individual tasks and the failure to integrate them into a single piece of table game equipment has weakened the overall benefit to the casino.

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