shufflers In 1969, Thomas Segers patented his "electronic card dealer" which was not working with real cards but simulating random selections. Thanks to lights, players could see the result. According to the patent, the design contains multivibrators, AND logic gates and a tube oscillator. The inventor also indicates that transistors could have been used in the circuit. In 1974, David Erickson and Richard Kronmal proposed a shuffler based upon a logic circuit with binary gates. The deck was placed in a holder and cards were extracted one by one, sent into a downward slope channel containing some flaps that would be activated or deactivated, depending upon which stack should be fed. The flap forwarded the card into the proper container and was moved by a coil controlled by the pseudo-random generator. Synchronization was important and several methods were used to ensure that the card would follow the correct path. Until the 1980s, there were not many innovations. In 1985, Edward Sammsel proposed a machine that extracted the cards from the bottom of two deck holders and put them in a second compartment. Another extractor would eject the card that was taken by the dealer. The order in which the two cards were taken from the holders was driven by a logic circuit whose main parts were a counter and a decoder. Photosensors detected how many cards were present in each compartment and if the card was taken by the dealer. In this case, another card would be processed from the initial holders. See also Shuffling Lottery machine Hammond Electric Bridge Table Mahjong automatic dealing table MindPlay SHFL Entertainment References External links Science News article: Card Shuffling Shenanigans casinocitytimes.com article: United States Patent 6,254,096: Shuffle Master's Continuous Shuffler : Device and method for continuously shuffling cards A submission to the UK Gambling Commission by a shuffling machine vendor casinocitytimes.com article: How Much of a Threat Are Shuffle-Trackers? Discover Magazine article: The Mathematics of Shuffling: A magician turned mathematician saves the casinos' shirts, which discusses the Diaconis and Holmes work on shuffling machines SIAM News: Within Every Math Problem, For this Mathematician, Lurks a Card-Shuffling Problem contains a detailed discussion of the Diaconis and Holmes results Gaming devices Card shuffling Card game equipment