Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – Accessory
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-20
2001-10-09
Martin-Wallace, Valencia (Department: 3713)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
Accessory
C463S023000, C463S011000, C463S022000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06299536
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT AUTHORIZATION
A portion of the disclosure of this patent application document contains material which is subject to copyight protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent application document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in card dealing apparatus, methods and systems and, more particularly, to an apparatus method and system involving a shoe used to hold a deck of cards which allows the card values to be identified by an integral scanner as the cards are dealt one-by-one from the shoe, with the resulting information being supplied to a computer system and software which identifies card count systems or strategies employed by the players receiving cards from the shoe.
2. Description of the Related Art
Shoes used for delivering cards have been known and used for a number of years in the past. In such a shoe, one or more decks of cards are placed in an opening at the top of the shoe during the play of a particular card game such as “21” or “Blackjack” and the shoe is situated near a dealer's station at a card game table. The dealer feeds the cards for delivery to the players at the card game table by manually engaging and forcing the top card of the deck through a feed slot at the front of the shoe. The top card of the deck is then pulled from the deck and delivered or dealt to a game player. In this way, a series of cards are delivered, one-by-one, to the players of the card game at the card game table until the players all have the requisite number of cards to play the game. The shoe is in the view of the dealer and the game players, and neither the players nor the dealer are aware of any of the cards value or suit since they are placed face down in the shoe and are not observable while the cards are in the shoe.
While shoes of this type are adequate for delivering cards one-by-one to game players of a card game, there is room for improvement, especially if there are to be checks made on the play of the game to assure that the cards are not being counted or tracked by professional card count system counters, or that other activities are not being pursued which would affect the profit margin of the casino or the gaming location where the card game is being played.
In 1964, Edward O. Thorp's book; “BEAT THE DEALER—A WINNING STRATEGY FOR THE GAME OF TWENTY ONE”, was published and favorably accepted by the public. This book offered the reader basic strategy and card count system decision indices for playing the game of twenty-one. Fundamentally, Mr. Thorp's “BEAT THE DEALER”, proved that the game of casino blackjack or twenty-one was not merely a game of chance, but also a game of skill. Subsequent to the publication of Thorp's “BEAT THE DEALER” many other books have been written and published by other authors detailing recommended decision indices for basic strategies and/or card count systems to be used by the reader when playing the casino card game of twenty-one. Many individuals who purchased, read, studied and implemented the card count system strategies detailed in these books soon became expert enough to play and beat the game of twenty-one offered by casinos. Those individuals who became expert at one of the basic strategies were able to significantly reduce their losses. Those individual who became expert at one of the card count systems were able to not only significantly reduce their losses; but they also achieved winning results.
Prior to the publication of “BEAT THE DEALER”; one-hundred-percent of twenty-one games dealt in legalized casinos in the United States of America were one and two deck hand decks. As the number of highly skilled card counters grew; most casinos reduced the number of twenty-one games dealt from one and two decks of playing cards, dealt from the dealer's hand, and increased the number to four, six or eight decks of playing cards dealt by hand from a card dispensing shoe.
Also, to offset any advantage a skilled card counter garnered in using a card count system, casinos changed the rules of the game, so that the rules were less favorable to the players. For example, the casinos reduced the deck penetration (the percentage of the deck dealt to the players before shuffling) for twenty-one or Blackjack games, from one-hundred-percent, (100%), to as little as fifty-percent, (50%) deck penetration. Today, it is rare to see any casino using hand decks to deal the game of twenty-one on more than fifty-percent of its twenty-one games and many casino's only deal the game of twenty-one from shoes containing multiple decks of playing cards.
The advent and availability of these card count systems and basic “21” or Blackjack strategies to the gambling public has directly and indirectly resulted in the legalized gaming industry, annually, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue they would otherwise earn from casino twenty-one players who previously played the game using random strategy and personal betting skills. Casino's have also experienced a further loss of revenue from their twenty-one games because the reduced deck penetration results in the dealer having to shuffle the decks of cards more frequently; thereby reducing the number of hands a dealer can deal per hour; thereby reducing the total amount of bets made at the game table on which a casino's “Theoretical Win” is based. (A casino's “Theoretical Win”, or house advantage, for the game of twenty-one is normally projected at one-percent, (1%), of the total amount of money bet by the players during the course of the play.) A twenty-one player who plays one or more of the published basic strategies at a proficiency of one-hundred-percent, (100%), will reduce the casino's “Theoretical Win” to approximately one-half-percent, (0.5%), and a twenty-one player who plays one or more of the published card count systems at a proficiency of one-hundred-percent, (100%), can obliterate the casino's “Theoretical Win” by reducing it to a negative percent, or an advantage to the highly skilled card counting player that may range from approximately one-half-percent, (0.5%), to more than three percent, (3%).
Casinos use the “Theoretical Win” to calculate each casino's projected win, or earning potential, from each individual twenty-one player who, in theory, usually makes random strategy and betting decisions during the play of the game. Each player's projected earning potential is then broken down into the player's projected loss per hour, day, or trip to the casino, and each player's complimentary value or complimentary equivalency. A casino twenty-one player's or customer's complimentary equivalency is identified as a percent, usually fifty-percent (50%), of the customer's earning potential, or customer's projected loss to the casino. A casino twenty-one player or customer's complimentary equivalency is further identified as the maximum dollar value of gratuities, (free room, food, beverages, and etc.), that a casino determines it may grant to a customer and still generate a profit to the casino from that customer.
The formulae used by casino to calculate a twenty-one player's earning potential and subsequent complimentary equivalency is:
Days/Stay×Hours Played per Day×Hands Played per Hour×Average Bet per Hand=Total Amount Bet per Trip
Total Amount Bet per Trip×Theoretical Win (1.0%)=Customer's Projected Loss per Trip or Earning Potential, the Casino's “Theoretical Win” per customer's trip.
Customer's Projected Loss per Trip×50.0%=Complimentary Equivalency
Using values of 2 days stay, 4 hours played per day, 75 hands played per hour and $100.00 average bet per hand in the above formulae results in;
2×4×75×$100.00=$60,000.00
Flehr Hohbach Test Albritton & Herbert LLP
Kasick Julie
Martin-Wallace Valencia
Smart Shoes, Inc.
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