Patent ID: 8038153

Claim:
A playing card handling system, comprising: a playing card input receiver; a playing card output receiver; at least one playing card transport path extending between the playing card input receiver and the playing card output receiver; a first intermediary playing card receiver disposed between the playing card input receiver and the playing card output receiver in the at least one playing card transport path, the first intermediary playing card receiver comprising a plurality of playing card receiving compartments, the plurality of playing card receiving compartments of the first intermediary playing card receiver physically coupled for movement together; a second intermediary playing card receiver disposed between the playing card input receiver and the playing card output receiver in the at least one playing card transport path, the second intermediary playing card receiver comprising a plurality of playing card receiving compartments, the plurality of playing card receiving compartments of the second intermediary playing card receiver physically coupled for movement together; and a control subsystem configured to allocate a plurality of playing cards from the input playing card receiver between at least the first intermediary and the second intermediary playing card receivers based on an order in which the playing cards will be arranged at the playing card output receiver.