Nevada Patent of the Month – December 2021
Casinos are known for their stringent rules and regulations surrounding new, fresh card decks and game security. Different casinos implement different methods, from washing the cards to shuffling machines. Today, shuffling machines typically fall into one of four categories:
- Roller-based pseudo-rifflers
- Random-selections shufflers
- Random-position shufflers
- Continuous shufflers
Regardless of shuffle type, the machine aims to produce a shuffled deck with cards in a truly random order. However, in reality, many shufflers have biases which can be exploited by a skilled player. FreeFall, LLC has developed a novel shuffling device which aims to reduce bias and increase game security. Their design is further smaller and more convenient than a traditional shuffler and experiences fewer jams or technical malfunctions.
FreeFall’s design falls into an emerging fifth category of shufflers – the intermixing device. Referred to as the FreeFall gravity drop shuffler, this design allows cards to freely fall into an interleaved card stack and can shuffle single or multiple decks at once. The card stack is first split into two smaller stacks. A card-edge lifter rises and lifts the card-edges of each stack. Once a height threshold is reached, the cards free fall and mix together. The use of gravity ensures that the number of cards falling together at one time is random and increases the randomness of the mix. This prevents a 1:1 interleaving which is found in other machines. The intermixing is repeated as many times as desired.
Increased randomness prevents or at least reduces the likelihood of a player exploiting the shuffle as there are significantly fewer biases to exploit. Gravity may be the key to game security for casinos.
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