Patent ID: 8485527

Claim:
A card shuffler comprising: (a) a base; (b) a deck-crib associated with said base and capable of containing a plurality of cards arranged in a pack parallel and in contact with one another; (c) a receiving rack associated with said base and defining a plurality of single-card receptacles in a linear array adjacent one another and located adjacent to said deck-crib, one of said deck-crib and said receiving rack being movable in a straight line with respect to said base, and parallel with and along the other one of said deck-crib and said receiving rack; (d) a card mover incorporated in the deck-crib and operable selectively to move a single one of said plurality of cards from said deck-crib to a selected one of said plurality of single-card receptacles; (e) a motor associated with said base and arranged to move said one of said receiving rack and said deck-crib relative to the other; and (f) a controller interconnected with said card mover and at least one of said deck-crib and said receiving rack and arranged to: (i) randomly select an empty one of said single-card receptacles of said receiving rack; (ii) thereafter cause said motor to move one of said deck-crib and said receiving rack relative to the other in a straight line and to align one of said card mover and said randomly selected empty one of said plurality of single-card receptacles with the other; (iii) thereafter cause said card mover to move a single card from said deck-crib into said randomly selected empty one of said plurality of single-card receptacles while said card mover and said single card receptacle are aligned with each other; and (iv) thereafter sequentially repeat steps (i), (ii), and (iii), until said deck-crib has been emptied of cards.