APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING THE PLAY AT A GAMING TABLE

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING THE PLAY AT A GAMING TABLE There is described a method and apparatus for monitoring the play at a gaming table. The disclosed embodiment comprises a dealing shoe adapted to output signals when cards are dealt, and an input device operable by means of sensors and/or by the dealer to output signals indicating the occurrence of events during game play such as the arrival and departure of players from the table, the placing of the first bet for each game, and the resolution of the wagers to end the game. Output signals are received and stored in a memory with an associated timestamp, and analysis of the signals and their respective timestamps enables the apparatus to determine the number of players present for each game, and to calculate the number of games played, and the duration of each game. The method and apparatus are equally applicable to gaming tables which, instead of a dealing shoe, have a gaming device such as a roulette wheel, and to gaming tables where no \"gaming device\" is used, such as a card table using conventional playing cards only. FIG. 1