System for monitoring the game of baccarat

1 . A system for monitoring the play of baccarat, comprising:

A card delivery shoe, the shoe comprising:

A logic module, the logic module comprising:

A microprocessor comprising a card identification module, a game control module and a configuration module;

A hardware component capable of interpreting signals from a sensing module; and

network communication port; and

A card rank and or suit sensor capable of sending signals to the hardware component, wherein the hardware component generates a signal representative of rank and/or suit;

A player display; and

A processor associated with the player display, wherein the processor has a network communication port, and when information is broadcasted over a network from the logic module of the card delivery shoe, the computer causes the reader board to display the broadcasted information.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the shoe is a non-mechanized shoe.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the card rank and/or suit sensor is selected from the group consisting of a CIS line sensing array and a CMOS 2-D sensing array.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware component is selected from the group consisting of a FPGA logic circuit and a ASIC circuit.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware component has stored data for known rank and suit symbols, and acquired data is compared to the known data to identify rank and or suit.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the network communication method is selected from the group consisting of TCP/IP and UDP.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the shoe is a mechanized shoe, comprising

a) an area for receiving a first set of pre-shuffled playing cards useful in the play of the casino table card game of at least one of blackjack or baccarat;

b) first card mover that moves playing cards from the first set to a playing card staging area wherein at least one playing card is staged in an order by which playing cards are removed from the first set of and moved to the playing card staging area;

c) second playing card mover that moves playing cards from the playing card staging area to a delivery area wherein playing cards removed from the staging area to the delivery shoe are moved in the same order by which playing cards were removed from the first set of playing cards and moved to the playing card staging area; and

d) playing card reading sensors that read at least one playing card value of each playing card separately.

8 . The system of claim 1 , and further comprising a CIS module, the module comprising:

a line scanner capable of scanning a line crossing an area of a card representing rank and/or suit; and

a card position sensor.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware component is capable of receiving signals from the line imager and card position sensor, wherein the hardware component forms a vector set from the output from the imager and card position sensor, and compares the vector set to known reference vector sets to determine rank and suit of a card.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein an output signal from the line scanner is at least one of voltage vs. time, binary data and gray scale data.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the player display is a computer monitor.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware component is a FPGA, and acquired data from the sensor is compared to stored data within the FPGA to determine rank and or suit.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the acquired data and stored data are vector sets.

14 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the CIS module provides spaced line scans of the playing card symbols.

15 . The system of claim 14 , and further comprising a sensor selected from the group consisting of a motion sensor and a card presence sensor, wherein the spaced line scans are triggered by the motion sensor.

16 . The system of claim 1 wherein the signals from the card rank and or suit sensor comprise signals indicative of at least one of voltage vs. time, binary values and gray scale values within a range of gray scale values.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the output from the CIS module is converted into binary data.

18 . The system of claim 1 wherein said sensor comprises a contact image line scanning system.

19 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the dealing shoe comprises:

a housing for holding cards to be dealt;

an output opening for removal of cards from the housing; and

a rank and or suit sensor located proximate the output opening.

20 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the card identification module forwards card rank and or suit information to a network.

21 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the game control module determines game outcomes and determines if additional cards should be dealt according to the rules of baccarat.

22 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the configuration module is capable of being reconfigured from a remote location.

23 . A method of controlling the game of baccarat, comprising:

Dealing cards from a card dispensing shoe capable of:

reading card rank and suit of cards as cards are being dealt;

providing instructions to a dealer according to the rules of baccarat; and

broadcasting game information over a network;

Providing a visual player display; and

Displaying game information in response to data broadcasted over the network.

24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the rank and suit reading is accomplished by means of a CIS line sensing or CMOS 2-D sensing module.

25 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the visual display displays at least one of historical player wins, banker wins and ties, player cards, banker cards, player hand count and banker hand count.

26 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the visual display displays information on at least one of a real-time basis and in response to a signal from a user control

27 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the rules of baccarat comprise a determination of when a player hand and or a banker hand requires an additional card, computation of the cumulative rank of each hand and an identification of a winning hand.