Patent ID: 7784790

Claim:
An apparatus for continuously shuffling playing cards, said apparatus comprising: a first card receiver for receiving a first group of cards; at least one moveable card-receiving compartment(s) generally adjacent to the first card receiver, and a motor for relatively moving the at least one card-receiving compartment(s); a card-moving mechanism between the first card receiver and the at least one card-receiving compartments that inserts cards randomly into the at least one card-receiving compartment; a processing unit that controls the card-moving mechanism and the motor for relatively moving the at least one card-receiving compartment(s) with respect to the card receiver so that cards placed in the first card receiver are moved into a selected number of card-receiving compartment(s); a second card-moving mechanism between the at least one card-receiving compartment(s) and a second card receiver, the second card receiver receiving cards from the card-receiving compartment(s), and a counting system that counts cards when 1) passed from the first card receiver to the card-receiving compartments, and/or 2) passed from the card-receiving compartments to the second card receiver, so that the number of cards in a location between the first card receiver and the second card receiver is known.