Patent Description:
In various playing card games such as poker, baccarat, bridge, and blackjack, a dealer sets playing cards of one deck or a plurality of decks on a card shooter and the like, delivers the playing cards one by one from the card shooter, and distributes the playing cards to a game participant. At this time, in order to guarantee fairness of the game, these cards need to be distributed randomly, so a game sponsor needs to sufficiently shuffle the playing cards randomly before setting the playing cards on the card shooter.

However, when the game sponsor performs shuffling prior to the game, it may take a long time to shuffle cards, which is a factor of hindering an efficient operation of a game. In addition, when the game sponsor performs shuffling, there is a problem in that there is room to perform fraudulent acts such as inserting and removing cards and replacing cards.

In order to solve such a problem, <CIT> discloses shuffled playing cards individually packaged in a state in which playing cards constituting a predetermined number of decks are shuffled. In the packaging of the shuffled playing card, a shuffled playing card ID for accessing information, which can specify a shuffle machine or a shuffle machine group shuffling the shuffled playing card, on database is assigned as an ID code. <CIT> relates to shuffled playing cards packaged as an individual pack after being shuffled in a random manner and to a manufacturing method thereof.

However, even if the ID code is assigned to the packaging of the shuffled playing card, when contents are replaced with a set of cards whose arrangement is known, there is no means for ascertaining whether these cards are genuine products, such that even fraudulent acts performed in a game using the set of cards cannot be found.

An object of the present invention is to provide a shuffled playing card and a method of manufacturing a playing card capable of confirming whether or not a playing card is a genuine product correctly manufactured and distributed on a sheet basis of a card base sheet.

The invention provides a playing card set according to claim <NUM> and a method of producing a playing card set according to claim <NUM>.

In the respective drawings, constituent elements having equivalent functions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the detailed description of the constituent elements denoted by the same reference numerals is not repeated.

<FIG> is a diagram showing a front surface of a card constituting a set of decks among playing cards according to one embodiment, and <FIG> is a diagram showing a back surface of the card. <FIG> is a diagram showing a front surface of a card other than the card constituting a set of decks among playing cards according to one embodiment, and <FIG> is a diagram showing a back surface of the card.

As shown in <FIG>, a set of playing cards according to the present embodiment has <NUM> × <NUM> = <NUM> cards <NUM> which are constituted by a combination of four suits 21a (that is, spade, club, diamond, and heart) and <NUM> ranks 21b (that is, ace (A), <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, jack (J), queen (Q), and king (K)) as a card constituting a set of decks.

In addition, as shown in <FIG>, the set of playing cards according to the present embodiment further has a "joker" card <NUM> as a card other than the cards constituting the set of decks. The "joker" card <NUM> included in one set of playing cards may be one sheet or two sheets. The "joker" card <NUM> is a card which is removed and discarded before a shuffling process at the time of producing a shuffled playing card to be described later.

The set of playing cards <NUM> and <NUM> according to the present embodiment are formed by being individually cut from one card base sheet <NUM> (see <FIG>) by a cutting machine.

As shown in <FIG>, common sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> are printed on front surfaces of each of the set of playing cards <NUM> and <NUM>, and a common back pattern <NUM> is printed on a back side thereof. The sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> may be a character code including a plurality of figures, alphabets, or symbols, or may be a bar code or a two-dimensional code in which the character code is encoded.

As shown in <FIG>, the sheet ID <NUM> printed on the card <NUM> constituting the set of decks may be printed with ink (for example, transparent UV ink) invisible to human eyes, or may be printed with ink (for example, black ink) visible to human eyes. When the sheet ID <NUM> is printed with ink (for example, transparent UV ink) invisible to human eyes, the appearance becomes similar to that of the conventional card, and thus a user of the card can use the card without feeling uncomfortable. On the other hand, when the sheet ID <NUM> is printed with ink (for example, black ink) visible to the human eyes, although there is a possibility that the user of the card may feel uncomfortable, the sheet ID <NUM> is simply an ID code, and therefore it does not cause special problems in the game.

In addition, as shown in <FIG>, the sheet ID <NUM> printed on a card <NUM> other than the card constituting the set of decks may be printed with ink (for example, transparent UV ink) invisible to human eyes, or may be printed with ink (for example, black ink) visible to human eyes. When the card printed with ink (for example, black ink) visible to human eyes, a manufacturer can easily confirm the sheet ID <NUM> in the manufacturing process to be described later when inspecting quality of the printed card base sheet.

As shown in <FIG>, the sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> printed on the respective playing cards <NUM> and <NUM> are stored in the database in association with one or both of recording of a printing date of the sheet ID on the original card base sheet <NUM> and recording of a cut date on the individual playing cards <NUM> and <NUM>.

<FIG> is a diagram showing a shuffled playing card according to the present embodiment, and is a diagram showing the shuffled playing card before a package is sealed with a seal. <FIG> is a diagram showing the shuffled playing card according to the present embodiment, and is a diagram showing the shuffled playing card in which a shuffled playing card ID is assigned to the seal for sealing the package.

The shuffled playing card <NUM> according to the present embodiment is a card in which a plurality of decks (for example, four decks or eight decks) of the above-described playing card <NUM> are one set, and is sufficiently shuffled by a shuffle machine. In the shuffled playing card <NUM>, different shuffled playing card IDs 13a are assigned as ID codes for each set. In the shown example, the shuffled playing card <NUM> is housed in a box-shaped package <NUM> and a lid thereof is sealed with a seal <NUM>. The shuffled playing card ID 13a is encoded as a bar code and printed on the seal <NUM> which seals the package <NUM>.

As shown in <FIG>, the sheet ID <NUM> of the playing card <NUM> constituting the shuffled playing card <NUM> and the shuffled playing card ID 13a are stored in the database in association with each other.

Next, a method of manufacturing a playing card <NUM> and a shuffled playing card <NUM> according to the present embodiment will be described. <FIG> is a flowchart showing a method of manufacturing a playing card <NUM> and a shuffled playing card <NUM> according to the present embodiment.

In the manufacturing process of the playing card <NUM> and the shuffled playing card <NUM> according to the present embodiment, it is preferable for a process management system to consistently perform process management from order to shipment. In the present embodiment, a manufacturing method using such a process management system will be described.

As shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, first, as a printing process, a printing machine prints a suit and a rank on the front surface of the card base sheet <NUM>, and prints a back pattern on a back surface thereof (step S40). In the shown example, a total of <NUM> cards including <NUM> cards <NUM> including a combination of four suits and <NUM> ranks, one "joker" card <NUM>, and three other cards <NUM> are printed in a matrix arrangement of <NUM> rows × <NUM> columns.

As one modification, as shown in <FIG>, a total of <NUM> cards including two decks of <NUM> cards <NUM> including a combination of four suits and <NUM> ranks and one other card <NUM> may be printed in a matrix arrangement of <NUM> rows × <NUM> columns.

Next, as a sheet ID assigning step, the process management system assigns different sheet IDs to each card base sheet or the plurality of card base sheets and the printing machine prints the sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> on the front surface of the card base sheet <NUM> (step S41). In addition, by the process management system, the sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> and the printing dates of the sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> on the card base sheet <NUM> are stored in the database in association with each other (see <FIG>). Although not shown in the drawing, the sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> may be stored in the database in association with one or two or more of a factory name, a manufacturing line, a customer name (casino name).

In the present embodiment, the sheet ID <NUM> is printed on the card <NUM> constituting a set of decks with ink (for example, transparent UV ink) invisible to human eyes. As a result, the card <NUM> constituting the set of decks has the same appearance as a conventional card, and thus the user of the card can use the card without feeling uncomfortable. It should be noted that the sheet ID <NUM> may be printed only on a specific card (for example, spade A) among the cards <NUM> constituting the set of decks, or may be printed on all the cards.

On the other hand, the sheet ID <NUM> is printed on the cards <NUM> and <NUM> other than the card constituting the set of decks with ink (for example, black ink) visible to human eyes. As a result, when the manufacturer can easily confirm the sheet ID when inspecting the quality of the printed card base sheet.

In the present embodiment, the sheet ID assigning process (step S41) is performed after the printing process (step S40), but the present embodiment is not limited thereto, and the printing process (step S40) may be performed after the sheet ID assigning process (step S41).

Next, the card base sheet <NUM> having undergone the printing process (step S40) and the sheet ID assigning process (step S41) is cut into individual cards <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> by the cutting machine (step S42). By removing cards <NUM> and <NUM> other than the cards constituting the set of decks from the cut card, the playing card <NUM> corresponding to one deck (corresponding to two decks from the card base sheet <NUM> shown in <FIG>) is produced.

The sheet ID <NUM> is read from the playing card <NUM> constituting the set of decks by the process management system before being shuffled or during being shuffled by the shuffle machine to be described later and is stored in the database in association with the shuffle machine (or shuffle machine group) and shuffled date and time (see <FIG>).

Next, as the shuffling process, the plurality of decks (for example, four decks or eight decks) of playing card <NUM> are shuffled by the shuffle machine, and the set of shuffled playing cards <NUM> is produced (step S43). As the shuffle machine, for example, the shuffle machine described in <CIT> can be used.

Next, the set of shuffled playing cards <NUM> which has undergone the shuffling process (step S43) is packaged by a packaging machine (step S44). In the present embodiment, as shown in <FIG>, the set of shuffled playing cards <NUM> is housed in the box-shaped package <NUM>. The material of the package <NUM> is not particularly limited, and may be paper or a resin film. As shown in <FIG>, the lid of the package <NUM> is sealed with the seal <NUM>.

Next, different shuffled playing card IDs are generated for each set of shuffled playing cards by the process management system, and the shuffled playing card ID 13a is assigned to the set of shuffled playing cards <NUM> as the ID code (step S45). In the shown example, the shuffled playing card ID 13a is encoded as the bar code and is printed on the seal <NUM> sealing the lid of the package <NUM> by the printing machine.

In the shown example, in addition to the shuffled playing card ID 13a, a specification table 13b is printed on the seal <NUM>. For example, arbitrary information such as a manufacturing number, a product number, a product name, a color, and a manufacturing date of the shuffled playing card is described in the specification table 13b.

Further, by the process management system, the sheet ID <NUM> read from the playing card <NUM> constituting the set of decks before the shuffling process (step S43) is stored in the database in association with the shuffled playing card ID 13a of the set of shuffled playing cards <NUM> to which the deck belongs (see <FIG>). In the shown example, the set of shuffled playing cards <NUM> are configured from the playing cards <NUM> corresponding to four decks, and four sheet IDs <NUM> are stored in the database in association with each shuffled playing card ID 13a.

According to the present embodiment, since the card base sheet <NUM> on which the different sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> are printed for one card base sheet or each of the plurality of card base sheets is cut to produce the playing card <NUM> of one deck or a plurality of decks, it is possible to confirm, on the database, the information on when the card is printed and also when the card is inspected by tracing back through the distribution history of the playing card <NUM>. As a result, it is possible to confirm whether the playing card is a genuine product correctly manufactured and distributed by reading the sheet ID <NUM> from the contents of the card to confirm the history on the database in units of sheet even if the contents of the packaged shuffled playing card <NUM> are replaced with a set of cards whose arrangement is known by malicious fraudulent players.

In addition, by printing different sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> for each card base sheet or the plurality of card base sheets, the ID management of the card base sheet <NUM> in the factory becomes possible. For example, even when the card base sheet <NUM> is discarded halfway, it is possible to manage at which step the playing card is discarded in the database. In this way, it is possible to grasp a yield in each process at the manufacturing stage. In addition, it will be able to be understood whether the card of the card base sheet which is determined to be defective in each process and thus discarded is inadvertently mixed in goods (that is, it will be able to be understood whether only cards of good card base sheet are used for goods). In addition, even if malicious fraudulent players illegally obtain the discarded card base sheet <NUM> and cut the obtained card base sheet by themselves to produce a counterfeit card and bring the produced counterfeit card for use in a game, the sheet ID <NUM> is read from the card to confirm the history on the database, thereby making it possible to easily detect that the playing card is a counterfeit card and enhance the security of the game.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, in the sheet ID assigning step, as shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, the sheet IDs <NUM> and <NUM> are printed on a part of the card base sheet <NUM> on which the cards <NUM> to <NUM> are printed, but the present embodiment is not limited thereto, and the sheet ID may also be printed on a part of the card base sheet <NUM> on which the card is not printed. In this case, it is possible to acquire the sheet ID from the remaining part (so-called punching scrap) after removing the cards <NUM> to <NUM> from the card base sheet <NUM>.

Claim 1:
A playing card set that includes one or more decks of playing cards, wherein:
the playing card set is assigned a playing card set ID by which the playing card set is distinguishable from other playing card sets;
each of the playing cards of the playing card set is assigned and has printed thereon an on-card printed ID that is different than each on-card printed ID that is assigned to any playing card of the other playing card sets; and
the on-card printed ID of the playing cards of the playing card set and the playing card set ID of the playing card set are associated with each other in a database so that, for each of the playing cards of the playing card set, the playing card set is uniquely identifiable from the on-card printed ID to thereby determine that the respective card belongs to the playing card set.