Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
  • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • A63F1/00—Card games
  • A63F1/06—Card games appurtenances
  • A63F1/18—Score computers; Miscellaneous indicators
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
  • A63F—CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; VIDEO GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • A63F9/00—Games not otherwise provided for
  • A63F9/24—Electric games; Games using electronic circuits not otherwise provided for
  • A63F2009/2401—Detail of input, input devices
  • A63F2009/2411—Input form cards, tapes, discs
  • A63F2009/2419—Optical

Definitions

• the dealer turns over or is dealt one of the dealer's first two cards face up (i.e., top card), the rank of the card visible to the players at the table.
• the dealer will immediately determine the point value of the hole card, while in other variations of the game the dealer waits until all players have played their hands before checking the point value of the hole card.
• the dealer then offers each player, in succession from the dealer's left to right, the opportunity to accept additional cards. Each player's hand is completed before the dealer offers the next player the opportunity to receive additional cards.
• the card interface device can be a stand alone device, or can be networked to a host computing system, server, and/or other electronic components.
• the card interface device can include a reader such as an optical scanner, optical imager or magnetic sensor for reading identifying markings from playing cards.
• the card interface device can include one or more printing heads, and/or magnetic or other write heads for printing identifying markings on playing cards.
• the reader and the printing or writing heads can be located in one housing or in separate housings.
• the card interface device can include a processor configured to generate a pseudorandom sequence of playing card values, and/or a print head controller for printing or writing markings on the playing cards corresponding to the pseudo-random sequence of playing card values.
• FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the networked automatic wager monitoring system of Figure 1.
• Figure 14 is a schematic view of a generated sequence of playing card values, illustrated in the form of an ordered sequence of playing cards.
• the host computing system 12 acts as a central computing system, interconnecting the gaming tables of one or more casinos.
• the host computing system 12 is associated with a single gaming table, or a small group of gaming tables.
• the host computing system 12 is associated with a single gaming table or group of gaming tables and is interconnected with other host computing systems.
• the drives 46, 50 and 52, and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the host computing system 12.
• the depicted host computing system 12 employs hard disk 46, optical disk 50 and magnetic disk 52, those skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that other types of computer-readable media that can store data accessible by a computer may be employed, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks ("DVD"), Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, smart cards, etc.
• the host computing system 12 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as the server computer 14.
• the server computer 14 can be another personal computer, a server, another type of computer, or a collection of more than one computer communicatively linked together and typically includes many or all of the elements described above for the host computing system 12.
• the server computer 14 is logically connected to one or more of the host computing systems 12 under any known method of permitting computers to communicate, such as through a local area network (“LAN”) 78, or a wide area network (“WAN”) or the Internet 80.
• LAN local area network
• WAN wide area network
• Such networking environments are well known in wired and wireless enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, extranets, and the internet.
• Other embodiments include other types of communication networks including telecommunications networks, cellular networks, paging networks, and other mobile networks.
• the server computer 14 includes server applications 88 for the routing of instructions, programs, data and agents between the gaming processors 86 and the host computing system 12.
• the server applications 88 may include conventional server applications such as WINDOWS NT 4.0 Server, and/or WINDOWS 2000 Server, available from Microsoft Corporation or Redmond, Washington. Additionally, or alternatively, the server applications 88 can include any of a number of commercially available Web servers, such as INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICE from Microsoft Corporation and/or IPLANET from Netscape.
• the drive mechanism 112 includes a drive roller 118 rotatably mounted at the end of a pivot arm 120 and driven by a motor 122 via a drive belt 124.
• the motor drive the drive roller 118,
• a stepper motor 122 can drive the drive roller 118 in small increments or steps, such that the card blank 104 is propelled incrementally or stepped through the card path 110 of the card printing device 24B, pausing slightly between each step. Stepper motors and their operation are well-known.
• a spring 126 biases the pivot arm 120 toward the card blanks 104 to maintain contact between the drive roller 118 and an outer most one 128 of the card blanks 104 in the card receiver 102.
• one or more guide rollers 136 may be driven where the card path 110 is longer than the length of the card blank 104. While a particular drive mechanism 112 is illustrated, many other suitable drive mechanisms will be apparent to those skilled in the art of printing, such as the numerous examples of drive mechanisms used in impact and/or non-impact printers.
• the markings can optionally include additional indicia such as advertising messages 162.
• the advertising messages 162 may be player or game specific, and may be provide to only specific players, to random players, and/or to all players.
• the advertising message 162 may take the form of promotions, for example, informing the player that the card may be redeemed for meals, beverages, accommodations, souvenirs, goods and/or services at casino facilities or other facilities.
• the inclusion of a serial number on the playing card, particularly a serial number encoded in machine-readable form 160 allows a promotional playing card 164 of the playing cards 108 to be easily verified using standard automatic data collection ("ADC") devices when presented for redemption.
• ADC automatic data collection
• FIG. 12 shows an overview of an illustrated method 600 of operating the card game evaluation system 10. Additional flow diagram ( Figure 13) and card sequences ( Figures 14-16) illustrate more detailed aspects of the operation of the card game evaluation system 10, as well as actions of the dealer employing the game evaluation system 10.
• the operating method 600 starts at step 602, for example in response to the insertion of a card blanks into the card printing device 24 A, 24B.
• the card game evaluation system 10 determines the initial sequence of card values.
• the card printing device 24A, 24B or card printing and writing device 24D creates playing cards matching the determined initial sequence of card values.
• the dealer deals the cards in the conventional fashion to the players and to the dealer's self.
• step 624 the card game evaluation system 10 notifies the dealer, the casino and/or other authorized personnel regarding the outcome of the hand verification and or game outcome verification.
• the method 600 concludes in step 628.
• Figure 13 shows an exemplary method 630 of operating the card game evaluation system 10 in the gaming environment of blackjack.
• method 630 identifies specific acts by the card game evaluation system 10 in verifying each complete hand, starting in step 632.
• the method 630 is described with reference to an example game of twenty-one, illustrated in Figures 14-16. The example is for illustrative purposes, and other sequences of card values, collected playing cards, game rules and game play are of course possible.
• the card game evaluation system 10 compares the composition of the theoretical hand to composition of the actual hands for each player.
• the card game evaluation system 10 employs the sequence of collected cards 94 to determine the actual hands for each player. Where a first player took one hit card, a second player took no hit cards, a third player took hit cards and a dealer took no hit cards, the sequence of collected cards 94 appears as shown in Figure 15.
• step 644 the card game evaluation system 10 notifies the dealer, casino, and or other authorized personnel of discrepancies between the composition of the theoretical hand and the composition actual hand.
• the smart paper a product developed by Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, of Palo Alto, California.
• the smart paper consists of a flexible polymer containing millions of small balls and electronic circuitry. Each ball has a portion of a first color and a portion of a second color, each portion having an opposite charge from the other portion. Applying a charge causes the balls to rotate within the polymer structure, to display either the first or the second color. Charges can be selectively applied to form different ones or groups of the balls to from the respective markings 154-160 on the playing cards 108. The markings 154-160 remain visible until another charge is applied.

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• 2002
  • 2002-05-20 CA CA2460850A patent/CA2460850C/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2002-05-20 EP EP02739300A patent/EP1399865A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2002-05-20 CN CN201210231820.2A patent/CN102764501B/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2002-05-20 WO PCT/US2002/015885 patent/WO2002101630A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2002-05-20 CN CNA028154614A patent/CN1539116A/zh active Pending
  • 2002-05-20 AU AU2002311957A patent/AU2002311957A2/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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