Patent Publication Number: US-6991540-B2

Title: Playing card supply method and apparatus

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
   This invention relates to a method and apparatus for supplying playing or gaming cards or playing pieces as used for example for playing card or other games in gambling establishments but not limited to that use. The present invention also relates to playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing card or other games. 
   BACKGROUND ART 
   Casinos and other gambling establishments use conventional playing cards for playing a number of card games for example blackjack and poker. Usually a number of decks of playing cards are provided at each gaming table with the cards being either shuffled by hand or by machine prior to being dealt to the players. One problem encountered in this conventional arrangement is that the effectiveness of the shuffle depends upon the skill of the dealer or the efficiency of the card shuffling machine to ensure that cards dealt are arranged randomly and this is often impossible or very difficult to achieve. Further as a finite number of cards are used in the decks that are shuffled, a problem of card counting can arise in that skilled individuals can count the cards being dealt to relatively accurately predict the next card to be dealt. Particular cards can also be susceptible to being marked which leads to potential cheating. A further disadvantage of the known arrangements is that a large number of decks of cards are used and decks of cards are required to be regularly replaced which leads to a substantial cost to the gambling establishment. 
   Gaming cards carrying pre-printed material such as bingo cards are also used for playing gambling games in gambling or other establishments. Such cards usually have a one-off use and thus are required to be discarded after use. Other games use playing pieces or other tokens which carry an identifying marking with the pieces or tokens being dealt to a player and the player gambling in accordance with the piece or token received and/or expected to be received. Such games encounter the same disadvantages outlined above in relation to playing card games. 

   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention aims in one aspect to provide a method and apparatus for supplying playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing a card game or other game such that the respective cards or pieces supplied carry randomly derived or selected indicia. The present invention aims in a further aspect to provide a method and apparatus for supplying playing or gaming cards or pieces carrying removable indicia thereon. The present invention in yet a further aspect aims to provide a method and apparatus for supplying and reusing playing or gaming cards or pieces. The present invention in yet a further aspect aims to provide playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing card or other games. Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description. 
   The present invention thus provides in a first aspect, a method of supplying playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing a card game or other game, said method including the steps of providing a plurality of carrier members, applying indicia to each said carrier member such that each said carrier member defines a said playing or gaming card or piece with said applied indicia defining the identity of said playing or gaming card or piece, each said indicia for application to said carrier members being derived or selected randomly, supplying said carrier members for use as playing or gaming cards or pieces in a game, and removing said applied indicia from said carrier members to enable said carrier members to be reused. 
   The playing or gaming cards or pieces defined by the carrier members may comprise physical playing or gaming cards or pieces as well as visual representations of playing or gaming cards or pieces as displayed for example on a monitor or other display device. The term “indicia” as used throughout the specification includes known indicia as used on playing or gaming cards or pieces including in the case of playing cards, the suit of a card, and value information including court card information as well as electronic representations thereof. Thus the card indicia may range from say an ace of clubs to a king of spades and include all suits and all values of conventional playing cards. In the case of gaming cards, the indicia may comprise numbers or other markings, symbols or characters as well as electronic representations thereof and similarly in the case of playing or gaming pieces. 
   In a further aspect, the present invention provides apparatus for supplying playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing a card game or other game, said apparatus including storage means for storing a plurality of carrier members, means for randomly generating or selecting indicia for application to each said carrier members, means for applying said indicia to each said carrier member whereby each said carrier members defines a said playing or gaming card or piece, said applied indicia defining the identity of a said playing or gaming card or piece, means for supplying said carrier members carrying said indicia for playing a card game or other game, and means for removing said applied indicia from said carrier members to enable said carrier members to be reused. 
   The present invention in yet a further aspect provides a method of supplying playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing a card game or other game, said method including the steps of providing a plurality of carrier members, applying indicia to each said carrier member whereby each said carrier member defines a playing or gaming card or piece and such that said indicia are displayed temporarily by said carrier members, each said indicia applied to each said carrier member being derived or selected randomly and defining the identity of a said playing or gaming card or piece, and supplying said carrier members for use as playing or gaming cards or pieces in a card game or other game. 
   In yet a further aspect, the present invention provides apparatus for supplying playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing a card game or other game, said apparatus including means for storing a plurality of carrier members, means for randomly generating or deriving indicia defining the identity of a playing or gaming card or piece, means for applying said indicia to each said carrier member whereby each said carrier member defines a playing or gaming card or piece and such that said indicia are displayed temporarily by said carrier members, and means for supplying said carrier members for use in playing a card game or other game. 
   The present invention in yet a further aspect provides a method for reusing playing or gaming cards or pieces, said method including the steps of providing a supply of a plurality of carrier members adapted to carry indicia defining the identity of a playing or gaming card or piece, randomly deriving or selecting indicia to be carried by respective said carrier members and causing respective carrier members to display respective said randomly derived or selected indicia whereby each said carrier member defines a playing or gaming card or piece, and removing said displayed indicia from said carrier members whereby said carrier members may be reused. 
   In yet a further aspect, the present invention provides Apparatus for supplying and reusing playing or gaming cards or pieces, said apparatus including means for storing a plurality of carrier members adapted to carry indicia defining the identity of a playing or gaming card or piece, and means for applying to said carrier members, randomly derived or selected said indicia whereby each said carrier member forms a said playing or gaming card or piece and means for removing said applied indicia from said carrier members. 
   In yet a further aspect, the present invention provides carrier members for use as playing or gaming cards or pieces for playing card or other games, said carrier members being adapted to carry indicia whereby each said carrier members defines a said playing or gaming card or piece, said indicia carried by each said carrier member defining the identity of a playing or gaming card or piece, said indicia being displayed temporarily by said carrier members such that said carrier members are capable of carrying respective different indicia whereby said carrier members may define different playing or gaming cards or pieces. 
   The carrier members may themselves comprise playing or gaming cards, playing pieces or other like members which carry the indicia for physically playing a game. Alternatively, the indicia carried by the respective carrier members are used to identify respective playing or gaming cards or pieces corresponding to the indicia carried by the carrier members. 
   Thus the carrier members in one aspect may comprise blank cards formed of cardboard, plastics or other material of the size and configuration of conventional playing cards or gaming cards. Alternatively, the carrier members may comprise playing pieces having an area or region which can carry identifying indicia. Where the carrier members are of this form, the means for applying the indicia to the respective carrier members or by which the carrier members are treated to carry the indicia may comprise means for printing or otherwise applying, the indicia onto the carrier members using an ink, dye or other marking medium to create an image of the indicia which is removable from the carrier members to enable the carrier members to be reused. In the above arrangement, the card indicia may be removed by means which clean or wipe the ink, dye or other marking medium from the carrier members to enable the carrier members to be reused. Alternatively, the image may be removed by chemical means, light or other physical means. 
   In an alternative arrangement, the indicia may be provided on stickers or other removable members and the means for applying the indicia to the respective carrier members comprise means for physically applying the removable stickers or members carrying the indicia to the carrier members. The means for removing the indicia in this aspect may comprise means for physically removing the stickers or other members carrying the indicia. 
   In yet an alternative arrangement, the carrier members may be treated with a light sensitive material which for example may be applied as a coating to or on the carrier members and the indicia may be displayed by subjecting the light sensitive material to light of a particular pattern or having certain characteristics which enable the indicia to be displayed on the light sensitive material. Thus the light sensitive material may comprise a photochromatic ink or coating such that the indicia can be displayed when exposed to a light pattern corresponding to an indicia. Alternatively, the light sensitive material may respond to a particular light polarization to display particular card indicia. In yet an alternative arrangement, the light sensitive material may be sensitive to light of a particular frequency or frequencies. 
   The image formed by the exposure of the light sensitive material to light may only appear for a certain period of time such that when re-exposed to a different light pattern, a new image showing a new indicia is apparent on the carrier members. Alternatively, the image may be removed by exposing the light sensitive material to light of an alternative frequency, polarization or the like. 
   In a further form, the light sensitive material may be replaced by a magnetically sensitive material which when subject to a magnetic field of a particular pattern will display indicia corresponding to that pattern. Re-exposure of the magnetically sensitive material to a magnetic field of a different pattern corresponding to different indicia will in effect “remove” the first card indicia and display the different card indicia. The carrier members carrying the magnetically sensitive material may thus be reused. 
   In another form, the material applied to the carrier members may comprise a thermo chromatic material such that a particular indicia or image to be carried by the carrier members may be displayed when the material is subject to heat from heat applying means which applies heat of a pattern corresponding to the particular indicia or image to be displayed. The indicia or image may fade after a period of time or alternatively may be effectively removed when subject to heat of a different pattern. 
   In another form, the carrier members carry an optically responsive imprintable material and wherein the apparatus includes means for applying an imprinting signal to the carrier members to display the indicia to be carried by the carrier members. 
   In a further form, the carrier members may be adapted to carry other physically applied images representing playing card indicia. Such images may be applied by chemical means or by a light source and may be removed by a reverse process to provide the carrier members for reuse. 
   The carrier members in a further form may comprise or incorporate electronic circuitry which includes a re-programmable memory and a display device such as a liquid crystal display or LED display. The indicia for display by the carrier members may be programmed by external programming means into the memories of respective carrier members for display and use of the carrier members as cards in playing a card game or gaming cards or pieces in other games. The indicia for display are suitably derived randomly as above. Carrier members of this type may then be reused by simply reprogramming the memories with further randomly derived card indicia. 
   In yet a further form, the indicia carried by the carrier members may be read from a reader to be displayed on a monitor or other display means as playing cards, gaming card or other playing pieces. In this configuration, the carrier members may be in the form of electronic chips, cards or other members which carry electronic or magnetic storage means which may store the indicia or a representation of the indicia. The indicia or an electronic representation of the indicia may be stored in, or programmed into the storage means of the carrier members by any suitable external application means which may comprise an electronic or magnetic transducer. The indicia or representation thereof for storage in the storage means is suitably derived or selected randomly. 
   The stored indicia or representations thereof stored on the carrier members may be read or determined by any suitable reading means which can read the indicia and display the indicia on suitable display means such as a monitor or other visual display unit. For reuse, the storage means of the carrier members may either have the indicia stored therein removed in a separate device or alternatively, the storage means may be simply reprogrammed such that storage of new indicia information will replace the previously stored indicia information. 
   The indicia may be randomly derived from any number of pre-stored indicia. In the case of playing cards, the card indicia may be randomly derived or selected from one or more card decks. The method and apparatus allows for the use of carrier members or playing cards for any card game using any number of card decks. Any number of card decks may selected from which the card indicia may be randomly selected. Selection of the number of card decks may be undertaken by means of an electronic controller on the apparatus which may be programmed or switchable to select the number of decks to be used. 
   The randomly derived or selected indicia applied or applicable to each card or playing piece may if desired be recorded and displayed on a display device on the apparatus or on another form of display for example a video wall to enable other persons to ascertain the cards or pieces being dealt. Thus for example, the dealers cards can be monitored. This information can also be transmitted electronically and interfaced to other computer or storage devices for future reference for example to allow players or gaming authorities to check the value or indicia of particular cards or pieces which have been dealt over a period of time. Furthermore, the randomly derived or selected indicia can be transmitted to locations remote from the point of selection to enable players to play a game.