Patent ID: 7594660

Claim:
A method of shuffling cards comprising: moving randomly organized cards to a card transport section, said card transport section comprising a card traveling surface, lower powered belts mounted adjacent to a first portion of the card traveling surface, upper powered rollers and lower powered rollers mounted adjacent a second portion of the card traveling surface, all of which act in tandem to move cards through the card transport section; transporting one or more cards from the first portion of the card traveling surface to the second portion of the card traveling surface using the lower powered belts; and transporting cards from the second portion of the card traveling surface to a collection tray by pulling a card from the one or more cards transported by the lower powered belts using the upper and lower powered rollers; wherein in response to sensing that a card has moved into said card transport section, cutting power to the lower powered belts such that only the upper powered rollers and lower powered rollers act on the card thereby facilitating the separation of any overlapping cards; in response to sensing that the card has moved substantially through said card transport section, restoring power to the lower powered belts; and repeating cutting and restoring power to the lower powered belts until at least a portion of the randomly organized cards are moved through said card transport section.