FIELD OF INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to playing card dealing shoes for use in casinos, and more particularly to an activation device for use in the playing card dealing shoe.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Security of playing cards is a major concern for casino properties. From leaving the factory to destruction, there are various methods and scams used to gain information on or tamper with cards to defraud casinos, causing massive financial losses. Damage to the brands of both the casino and the playing card manufacturer also occurs when these losses occur.

Players use any perceived instance of breach of game integrity to request money from a casino. Gaming regulatory agencies may also institute penalties against a casino for a breach of game integrity.

Playing card manufacturers use various coding, packaging, storage and tracking means to ensure integrity throughout the manufacturing process. Examples include using random number generators to randomly shuffle cards together so the casino doesn't have to.

Casinos use various procedures to try and ensure the security and integrity of the playing cards using a combination of human beings, machinery and procedures. Every interaction with human beings actually creates an additional point of risk in the case of unscrupulous individuals; and a point susceptible to human error or oversight. Procedures rely on human intervention and control, so provide limited security. Machinery, such as automated deck checkers and shufflers are also susceptible to failure and introduce human intervention.

This invention eliminates the security risks that occur throughout the playing card value chain. One example is the ability for cards to be replaced and/or reordered in the pack without the casino's knowledge. The invention also prevents a card from being used more than once or from being transferred from one pack or table and used on another. The invention also eliminates the need for expensive and labor intensive management of cards before and after game play and the need for physical destruction of them.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

By using known methods of printing individual playing cards, applying unique individual identifiers, storing, encrypting and reading data together in a unique way with electronic table gaming devices such as dealing shoes and automatic shufflers, security can be ensured. The concepts disclosed herein can be applied to deck sizes containing any number of cards, including but not limited to deck sizes of 52, 104, 208, and up to 520 or more.

Individual cards receive a unique mark or code referred to as a serial code, allowing each to be tracked thru multiple systems both in manufacturing and game play. The unique individual identifiers could be numbers, letters, bar codes, QR codes, 2D or 3D codes or any other marks to make each card unique. The individual identifiers can be stand alone or can be combined with other information that is desired such as card rank and suit, casino property, card color or design, production details etc.

The individual identifiers on each card are read as the cards are assembled into the decks. The various identifiers are captured to a data source and encrypted into a deck identification number, code or mark, and associated file. The encryption can be done via a private key (Kpriv). There are multiple methods or algorithms for encryption, including but not limited to AES256 and SHA256. The deck identification file or data is then associated with the physical deck of cards using a smart card, RFID chip, SD card, or any other electronic data storage device or file. For example, a dual-interface card, a contactless card, a CR-80 8-pin card, a SIM/SAM card, or a keychain card may be used. This is referred to as the activation device. The activation device will be discussed herein in the context of a data card, although it should be recognized that other forms of activation devices could be used.

The data card travels with the deck of cards. It could be inside the deck in the form of a cut card or special card, or in or on the pack in any manner. Once at the casino, the data card is queried by a central server, or a device at the point where integrity of the cards needs to be verified. Such points could include an inventory management scanner, dealing shoe, shuffler, storage device or other piece of equipment.

When encrypted, the data card file is queried using a Device Key (Kdev). The device key works to read the data and determine if a match to the expected information exists. As cards are examined or read by a device such as a playing card dealing shoe, there is a check for the individual identifiers and the data card is queried to validate a match. If a match is not found, the device would stop, lock, alarm, send a signal or alert or the like to indicate a mismatch. Thus, as each card is pulled, the system verifies the information on the playing card to a matching serial number from the data card before the value of the card is considered or identified by the device.

For additional security the data card can be set to read each individual serial code only once to ensure the cards can only be used once. However, if cards are to be reused, the card deactivation features can be adjusted accordingly. For yet another level of security, the data card can contain the exact sequence of the deck.

A casino may destroy the data card or the device may erase the data card, making the reading of the associated playing cards by the device impossible.

