Patent Document ID: 20160059111
Application ID: 14939462
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A playing card shuffling device, comprising: a card infeed area configured to support a group of cards to be shuffled; a card collection area within the shuffling device, wherein the card collection area comprises a moveable card support surface and an elevator for raising and lowering the card support surface and any cards supported by the card support surface; a card moving mechanism for moving cards individually from the card infeed area onto at least one of the card support surface and at least one card located on the card support surface; a pair of grippers for grasping edges of a predetermined number of cards supported by the card support surface; a bracing arm pivotally mounted at a proximal end within the shuffling device and movable between a disengaged position where the arm is retracted such that cards may be elevated by the elevator and an engaged position spaced above an uppermost gripped card and positioned to inhibit the card from flipping over in the event the card pops out of the grippers; a motor for rotating the bracing arm between the engaged position and the disengaged position; a processor programmed to randomly select an elevator location, to direct the grippers to grip at least one card, to lower the elevator a predetermined distance to suspend the at least one gripped card and create a gap below the at least one gripped card, to instruct the card moving mechanism to insert a card in the gap formed beneath the grippers, and provide signals to the motor to move the bracing arm between the engaged position and the disengaged position when a number of cards in a predetermined range are suspended in the grippers; and a sensing system for sensing a number of gripped cards.