Discard rack with card reader for playing cards

Abstract

A card verification station moves and reads suit and rank of individual cards. The cards are provided to a card in-feed area and moved individually to a card collection area. A device may comprise a) a card in-feed area with card moving elements that move only a bottom card from a set of cards in the card in-feed area, b) a card collection area that receives cards from the card moving area in the same order as cards are received in the card in-feed area, c) an image capture device that captures data from a card while the card is between the card in-feed area and the card collection area, d) a processor capable of controlling the operation of the card verification station, and e) an elevator that lowers to maintain a level at which cards are received in the card collection area. A method of verifying a group of playing cards is also disclosed.

1 - 33 . (canceled)  
     
     
         34 . A method of verifying cards dispensed in a card game comprising: 
 reading with a first card reader at least one of rank and suit of individual cards before the cards are distributed to players in a card game;    dispensing read cards to the players in the card game;    collecting dispensed cards at conclusion of a round of play in the card game for at least one of the players;    providing the collected dispensed cards into a discard rack with a second card reader;    the second card reader reading at least one of suit and rank of each collected dispensed card provided to the discard rack; and    comparing the at least one of rank and suit of the dispensed cards as read with the first reader with the at least one of rank and suit of the collected dispensed cards read with the second card reader.    
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34  wherein collected cards fed into the discard rack are fed in as a group and read one-at-a-time.  
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group is a complete hand of cards from a single player.  
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group consists of completed hands of cards from multiple players and/or a dealer.  
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 35  wherein an identity of a group of cards is selected from the group consisting of a partial hand, a dealer hand, a partial dealer hand, a group of common cards, a player hand, and a partial player hand.  
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group comprises all hands from all players in a round of play.  
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group consists of all hands from all players in a round of play.  
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group consists of all hands from all players and a dealer in a round of play.  
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group consists of all hands from all players and all community cards in a round of play.  
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 35  wherein the group consists of all hands from all players, all community cards and a dealer hand in a round of play.  
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 34  wherein cards are read by and dispensed from a dealer delivery shoe.  
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 34  wherein data from comparing the at least one of rank and suit of the dispensed and collected cards is collected and stored in a database.  
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 45  wherein the data is used to determine at least one statistic in the game.  
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 46  wherein the statistic is selected from the group consisting of: hand composition, last cut card, and verification that the dispensed cards are the same cards as the fed cards.  
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 34  wherein a visual display provides a visual indication of deviations between the rank and/or suit of read playing cards and stored values.  
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48  wherein the visual display is present on the card discard rack.