Card Dealing Machine

Abstract

A card dealing machine with an oscillating arm that includes a receiver or shoe that has four slots therein. The arm's oscillating motion is stopped once per rotation to align the appropriate slot with an exit slit where a card comes out. The location that the arm is stopped depends on a value read by an optical card reader, where the card value is associated with a pre-determined hand that corresponds to the appropriate slot. The oscillating motion is repeated until all 52 cards in the deck are dealt. Errors or warnings are issued if more or less than 52 cards are read or if duplicate cards are read.

1 . A card dealing machine for dealing a pre-determined game hand comprising:
 a reader configured to read a plurality of cards to determine a value thereof;   an arm;   a drive moving the arm in an oscillating motion;   a receiver positioned on said arm and including at least a first destination;   a mover configured to move a first one of the plurality of cards to said receiver;   a stop mechanism in communication with said reader such that when the first one of the plurality of cards is associated with the pre-determined game hand corresponding to the first destination, said stop mechanism stops movement of the arm during the oscillating motion to align the first destination to receive the first one of the plurality of cards from said mover.   
     
     
         2 . The card dealing machine of  claim 1  wherein said receiver includes a second, third and fourth destination and said stop mechanism includes a plurality of stops comprising a first, second, third and fourth stop respectively corresponding to the first, second, third and fourth destinations;
 one of the plurality of stops is selectively engaged for each oscillation of the oscillating motion based on a value read by said reader corresponding to a next one of the plurality of cards. 
 
     
     
         3 . The card dealing machine of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a processor in communication with said reader and said stop mechanism, said processor transmitting a signal to said stop mechanism to engage at least one of a plurality of stops, the at least one of the plurality of stops associated with the first destination. 
 
     
     
         4 . The card dealing machine of  claim 1  the stop mechanism includes at least one stop activated by a solenoid. 
     
     
         5 . The card dealing machine of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a processor in communication with said reader and said stop mechanism; 
 a fixed stop configured as one of a plurality of stops of said stop mechanism and said first destination associated with said fixed stop; 
 wherein said processor selects said fixed stop based on the value of the first one of the plurality of cards being associated with the first destination. 
 
     
     
         6 . The card dealing machine of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a processor in communication with said reader and said stop mechanism; 
 a computer in communication with a storage and said processor, said storage having data indicative of the pre-determined game hand stored thereon; 
 said processor receiving said data such that the card dealing machine is programmed to deal the pre-determined game hand associated with the data. 
 
     
     
         7 . The card dealing machine of  claim 6  wherein said storage includes data indicative of a plurality of pre-determined game hands and said computer allows a user to select the pre-determined game hand from one of the plurality of pre-determined game hands. 
     
     
         8 . The card dealing machine of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a drive having a cam coupled thereto, said drive rotating the cam; 
 a follower connected to said arm, the follower contacting the cam such that rotation of the cam causes the oscillating motion. 
 
     
     
         9 . The card dealing machine of  claim 8  wherein the stop causes the follower and the cam to lose contact during at least part of a rotation of the cam. 
     
     
         10 . A method of dealing a pre-determined set of four game hands comprising:
 (a) providing a deck of cards having a plurality of cards;   (b) inserting the deck of cards into a holder of a card dealing machine;   (c) activating the card dealing machine to successively read a value of the plurality cards using an optical reader;   (d) stopping an oscillating arm of the card dealing machine at one of four locations based on the value read;   (e) moving each of the plurality of cards with an oscillating mover into a receiver positioned on the oscillating arm, the receiver having four destinations such that a selected one of the four destinations corresponds to the one of four locations;   (f) repeating steps (d) and (e) for each successively read one of the plurality of cards to place at least one of the plurality of cards in each of the four destinations.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein said repeating step (f) is done until each one of the plurality of cards is placed at one of the four destinations such that each destination contains an equal number of cards. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the four destinations are each separate slots on the receiver. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the receiver is removable from the oscillating arm. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising:
 stopping said repeating step if a value read is the same value as a previously red value and generating an alert indicative of a duplicate card having been red. 
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising:
 generating an alert the plurality of cards total more or fewer than  52 . 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising:
 said card dealing machine receiving a data indicative of the pre-determined set of four game hands; and 
 programming a processor of said card dealing machine with said data such that the four game hands are respectively dealt in to the four destinations of the receiver. 
 
     
     
         17 . A card dealing machine for dealing a set of four pre-determined game hands comprising:
 a holder configured to receive a deck of cards including a plurality of cards;   a receiver including four destinations each one of the four destinations associated with one of the four pre-determined game hands;   a mover configured to successively move one of the plurality of cards from the holder and into the receiver;   a reader positioned to successively read the plurality of cards to determine a value thereof;   an arm with said receiver positioned thereon;   a drive having a rotating component, the drive moving the arm in an oscillating motion;   a processor in communication with said reader and a stop mechanism, the processor programmed to select one of four stops of said stop mechanism based on the value of each successively read one of the plurality of cards with each rotation of the rotating component;   
     
     
         18 . The machine of  claim 17  wherein, for each rotation of the rotating component, the selected one of the four stops halts movement of said arm to receive one of the plurality of cards in one of the four destinations based on which one of the four pre-determined game hands the one of the plurality of cards is associated with. 
     
     
         19 . The machine of  claim 17  wherein at least one of the four stops is activated by a solenoid. 
     
     
         20 . The machine of  claim 17  wherein one of the four stops is a fixed stop and three of the four stops are activated by solenoids such that when the fixed stop is selected, the solenoids are inactive. 
     
     
         21 . The machine of  claim 17  further comprising:
 a slit in said holder configured to receive one of the plurality of cards there through when moved by the mover to allow the one of the plurality of cards to exit the holder and be received by said receiver. 
 
     
     
         22 . The machine of  claim 17  wherein the mover and the reader are configured to reciprocate together as one to read a stationary one of the plurality of cards while moving in one direction and move the one of the plurality of cards out of the holder and into the receiver while moving in an opposite direction.