Another follow-up to the card-reading Shuffle Master machine

One of our alert readers, Tim Boychuk, found out about the single-deck Shuffle Master and sent us the information. For this I am giving him a free 30-day subscription to my private website at www.goldentouchcraps.com. We have over 5,000 members on this private site and the conversations are interesting, enlightening and fun.

From Tim Boychuk:

The machine that the letter writer talks about in your article exists. It won an award at the IGWB International Gaming Products Awards in February 2008. You can read about it at http://www.shufflemaster.com/02_eu_products/utility_products/shufflers/shufflers_sd/i-deal.asp

They also have an i-shoe that can read every card that is dealt. Big Brother is watching.

SILVER WINNER

i-DEAL AUTOMATIC CARD SHUFFLER
SHUFFLE MASTER

Shuffle Master is renowned for its understanding of how important the casino pit is to an operator's bottom line, and for well more than a decade the company has consistently provided products that deliver what table games need to help make them profitable.

With Shuffle Master's third-generation single-deck specialty shuffler, the i-Deal, innovative design is joined with state-of-the-art technology to ensure a completely random, nontrackable shuffle at a speed 25% faster than existing single-deck shufflers.

Key features include optical card recognition that reads the rank and suit of every card to minimize cheating and dealer error. Operators are provided the added benefit of being able to reconstruct dealt hands, re-sort the deck to its original suited order and verify winning payouts. It also allows casinos to offer more specialty games with larger, more enticing jackpots without the threat of card manipulation. The i-Deal also is equipped with a dealer alert that detects when a shoe has too many cards or is missing any.

The i-Deal's user-friendly touch screen display and easy operation reduce training time and its advanced self-diagnostic capabilities ensure that performance issues are quickly detected, identified and analyzed and the correct personnel notified, so the potential for down time and "dead tables" is eliminated.

The i-Deal handles paper or plastic, poker or bridge-size cards, and its unique features include a low-profile, flush-mount design and unload ports, built-in discard rack, a programmable multi-game function, and a rotary card wheel that rapidly delivers predetermined hands while shuffling a second deck. Our judges pointed up the i-Deal's "reliability" and "ease of handling" in making it one of the 2007 competition's top vote-getters.

You have a great column.

Thanks,
Tim Boychuk