Patent ID: 8210535

Claim:
An apparatus for continuously supplying shuffled playing cards, said apparatus comprising: a first card receiver for receiving a first group of unshuffled cards; a plurality of adjacent card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the first card receiver, and means for moving the plurality of adjacent card-receiving compartments with respect to the first card receiver; a first card-moving mechanism for moving cards between the first card receiver and the plurality of adjacent card-receiving compartments; a processing unit that controls the first card-moving mechanism and the means for moving the plurality of adjacent card-receiving compartments with respect to the first card receiver so that multiple cards placed in the first card receiver will be moved into a randomly selected compartment; a second card receiver for receiving at least one group of cards formed in a compartment of the plurality of adjacent card-receiving compartments, the second card receiver having a card present sensor operably coupled thereto for sensing the presence of cards in the second card receiver; and a second card-moving mechanism for moving formed groups of cards from a card-receiving compartment to the second card receiver.