Patent Application
20200211326
The present invention relates to an abnormality or cheating detection system for a game in a playroom.
In playrooms such as casinos, many table games such as baccarat and blackjack are played. In these games, the standard deck consisting of 52 playing cards is used, and a card dealing device that contains a plurality of (6 to 9 or 10) decks of shuffled playing cards deals playing cards onto a game table.
In playrooms such as casinos, attempts have been made to prevent various abnormalities or cheatings in those table games. An existing technique is to provide a monitor camera that monitors the game table mainly for a cheating, determine a cheating by a customer (game participant), such as fraudulent card change during a game or fraudulent chip movement during a game, from an image obtained from the monitor camera, and prevent the cheating.
The card game monitoring system described in Patent Literature 1 performs monitoring for an abnormality or cheating by using a monitor camera to identify the value of the playing card dealt on the game table from the card dealing device by the dealer and determining whether the identified value agrees with the value of the playing card read by the card dealing device.
Patent Literature 1: International Publication No. WO 2015/107902
In the baccarat game, first, the customer bets on the Player or the Banker as the winner of the baccarat game. The dealer then draws cards, facing down, one by one from the card dealing device onto the game table. The dealer first draws four cards, and deals the first card to the Player's hand, the second card to the Banker's hand, the third card to the Player's hand, and the fourth card to the Banker's hand by placing the cards in the Player area or the Banker area. Conventional cheating monitoring systems have a problem that, if the dealer makes a mistake in dealing the cards, the systems cannot detect the mistake.
If it turns out after the game that the dealer has made a mistake in dealing cards, the casino can be responsible for the mistake and suffer a loss.
The first and third cards dealt to the Player's hand and the second and fourth cards dealt to the Banker's hand are passed to the customer who has betted on the Player (in principle, the customer who has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers have betted on the Player) and the customer who has betted on the Banker (in principle, the customer who has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers have betted on the Banker) with the cards facing down, respectively. When the dealer makes a mistake in passing the cards to the customers, there is a problem that the mistake cannot be detected, and the cards dealt to the Player area and the cards dealt to the Banker area may be interchanged.
To solve the various problems described above, an abnormality detection system for a playroom with a game table according to the present invention is an abnormality detection system for a baccarat game, including: a game monitoring device that monitors proceedings of the baccarat game played on a game table using a camera; an image analyzing device that performs image analysis of a video obtained by the camera; a card dealing device that determines and displays a winner/loser result of each game on the game table; a card deal detecting device that identifies an order of dealing and positions of cards dealt on the game table by a dealer based on an analysis result from the image analyzing device; and a controller that stores a rule of the baccarat game and determines whether or not the order of dealing and positions of cards obtained from the card deal detecting device are those in which the cards are dealt in a Player area or a Banker area on the game table according to the rule of the baccarat game, wherein the controller has a function of outputting an abnormality determination result when it is determined that an abnormality that does not conform to the rule of the baccarat game has occurred.
In addition, the card dealing device may further include a deal restricting device that inhibits dealing of cards in response to the output of the abnormality determination result.
In addition, the controller may have a function of determining an abnormality of dealing of cards in each game until the number of cards dealt by the dealer reaches three and activating the deal restricting device that inhibits dealing of cards in response to the determination result so that four or more cards are not dealt on the table when it is determined that an abnormality has occurred.
In addition, the controller may have a function of determining an abnormality of dealing of cards in each game each time the dealer deals a card and activating the deal restricting device that inhibits dealing of cards in response to the determination result so that no card is dealt on the table after it is determined that an abnormality has occurred.
In addition, the controller may have a chip detection function of identifying on which of a Player side or a Banker side on the game table a game participant has betted a chip based on the analysis result from the image analyzing device in each game, the card deal detecting device may have a function of detecting positions and movements of two cards dealt in each area, and the controller may have a function of determining whether or not the two cards dealt in the Player area are moved to in front of the game participant who has betted on the Player side for squeezing and the two cards dealt in the Banker area are moved to in front of the game participant who has betted on the Banker side for squeezing.
In addition, the controller may have a function of further determining whether or not the two cards provided to each game participant for squeezing are correctly placed back in the Player area and the Banker area on the game table.
In addition, the controller may turn on an abnormality indicator lamp provided on either or both of the card dealing device and the game table when it is determined that an abnormality has occurred.
The system according to the present invention can detect an abnormality or cheating and issue a warning or stop the abnormality or cheating when, after drawing cards onto a table in a baccarat game, a dealer makes a mistake in dealing cards to the Player side and the Banker side or in passing cards to customers after dealing, for example.
Before detailed descriptions of embodiments, a flow of baccarat game played in playrooms such as casinos will be described.
As shown in
In some casinos, a service referred to as “squeeze” is then offered to a customer 6 who has betted on the Player and a customer 6 who has betted on the Banker. Specifically, as shown in
Since all the cards 1 are facing down when the cards are drawn from the card dealing device 3, neither the dealer 5 nor the customers 6 can see the rank (value) or the suit (hearts, diamonds, spades, or clubs) of the cards. After the fourth card 1 is drawn, and the customer 6 receives the card 1, the customer 6 turns the card 1 over (a third step). Typically, this motion of turning the card facing down over is referred to as “squeeze”. The “squeeze” is an element that allows the customer 6 to enjoy the game to the fullest.
Based on the ranks (values) of the first to fourth cards 1 and the conditions according to the specific rules of the baccarat game, the dealer 5 draws the fifth card 1 and then the sixth card 1. These cards 1 go to the Player's hand or the Banker's hand, and as with the first to fourth cards 1, the card 1 to the Player's hand is passed to the customer 6 who has betted on the Player for squeezing, and the card 1 to the Banker's hand is passed to the customer 6 who has betted on the Banker for squeezing. Based on the ranks (values) of the first to fourth cards 1 (and the fifth and sixth cards, in certain cases) and the specific rules of the baccarat game, the winner/loser of the game is determined. The rule of the game is programmed in the card dealing device 3 in advance, and the card dealing device 3 is configured to be able to read the information (rank (value) and suit) on the cards 1 dealt and determine the winner/loser of the game. It is determined whether or not the winner/loser (result) of the game determined by the card dealing device 3 agrees with the winner/loser of the game determined by the dealer or the like as described above.
In the following, a summary of the whole of an abnormality or cheating detection system for a game in a playroom according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The present detection system further includes a controller 14 that detects, based on the image analysis result from the image analyzing device 12, the presence or absence of a card 1 that is drawn from the card dealing device 3 by the dealer 5 and placed in the area 10 (the Player area 10P or the Banker area 10B) on the game table 4 near the dealer 5 as the Player's hand (the Player area 10P) or the Banker's hand (the Banker area 10B). The detection of the presence or absence of a card 1 placed in the area 10 (the Player area 10P or the Banker area 10B) as the Player's hand or the Banker's hand is performed by the image analyzing device 12 using an existing technique commonly used. For example, the detection is performed by image analysis based on the contrast between the color of the Player area 10P and the Banker area 10B and the color of the cards. However, the arrangement that detects the presence or absence of a card 1 is not limited to such an arrangement based on image processing, and a sensor or the like that optically or otherwise detects the presence or absence of a particular object may be used, for example. The image analyzing device 12 and the controller 14 of the present detection system includes a combination of one or more computers, programs and memories.
A card deal detecting device 14C is incorporated in the controller 14 and identifies the order of dealing (such as (1) to (4)) and the positions (the Player area 10P or the Banker area 10B) of cards dealt by the dealer 5 on the game table 4, based on the analysis result from the image analyzing device 12. The controller 14 stores the rules of the baccarat game and determines whether or not the order of dealing and the positions of the cards in the Player area 10P and the Banker area 10B on the game table 4 obtained from the card deal detecting device 14C conform to the rules of the baccarat game. Since the card dealing device 3 knows the ordinal number of each card 1 during deal of cards 1, the controller 14 may determine whether each card 1 is dealt to the Player area 10P or the Banker area 10B based on the information on the order of dealing (such as (1) to (4)) of the cards obtained from the card dealing device 3 and the information from the card deal detecting device 14C. The controller 14 has a function of informing a pit manager or administrative staff of the casino of an abnormality by outputting an abnormality determination result 15 when an order of dealing of cards 1 that does not conform to the rules of the baccarat game is detected and it is determined that an abnormality has occurred. Furthermore, when it is determined that an abnormality has occurred, the controller 14 turns on an abnormality indicator lamp 16 provided on either or both of the card dealing device 3 and the game table 4.
When the dealer 5 correctly deals cards according to the rules of the baccarat game, as shown in
In this process, as shown in
The present system is configured to be able to detect, based on the image analysis result from the image analyzing device 12, whether or not the card 1 dealt to the Player's hand or the Banker's hand is correctly provided by the dealer 5 to the customer 6 who has betted on the Player (in principle, the customer 6 who has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers 6 have betted on the Player) or the customer 6 who has betted on the Banker (in principle, the customer 6 who has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers 6 have betted on the Banker). To this end, the controller 14 has a chip detection function of determining, based on the analysis result from the image analyzing device 12, in which of a Player bet area 8 and a Banker bet area 8 on the game table 4 each customer 6 (game participant) has placed a chip 9 in each game. Furthermore, the card deal detecting device 14C has a function of detecting positions and movements of the two cards dealt in each area, and the controller 14 has a function of determining whether or not the two cards 1 dealt in the Player area 10P are correctly moved to in front of the game participant 6 who has betted on the Player for squeezing (as shown by X) and the two cards 1 dealt in the Banker area 10B are correctly moved to in front of the game participant who has betted on the Banker for squeezing (as shown by Y).
The positions and total amount of the chips 9 (in which of the Player bet area 8 and the Banker bet area 8 the chips 9 are betted) can be unable to be ordinarily detected because the chips 9 are misaligned and overlap or because the chips 9 are located in a blind spot of the camera 2. The controller 14 is configured to be able to correctly grasp the positions and number of the chips, for example, by recognizing hiding or the like of any chip 9 in the blind spot (the chip may be partially or entirely hidden) by using a self-learning function or the like based on an existing artificial intelligence-based computer or control system or a deep learning (structure) technique. Furthermore, the arrangement that detects the positions 8 and kinds of the chips 9 in the bet area 8 is not limited to this arrangement, and an ID embedded in the chip 9 may be read and detected, for example.
As described above, the controller 14 can grasp the positions 8 (Player, Banker or Pair), the kinds (different values are assigned to chips 9 of different colors) and the number of the chips 9 betted by each player 6 via the camera 2 and the image analyzing device 12, and can detect which customer 6 has betted on the Player (which customer 6 has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers 6 has betted on the Player) and which customer 6 has betted on the Banker (which customer 6 has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers 6 has betted on the Banker).
After the customer 6 turns over the card 1 provided facing down for squeezing, based on the conditions according to the specific rules of the baccarat game, the dealer 5 draws the fifth card 1 and then the sixth card 1. These cards 1 go to the Player's hand or the Banker's hand, and as with the first to fourth cards 1, the card 1 to the Player's hand is passed to the customer 6 who has betted on the Player for squeezing, and the card 1 to the Banker's hand is passed to the customer 6 who has betted on the Banker for squeezing. After squeezing, the first to fourth cards 1 (and the fifth and sixth cards 1, in certain cases) are placed back in their respective original positions (the Player area 10P or the Banker area 10B). In this case, again, the controller 14 determines whether or not the two cards 1 dealt in each area (and the fifth and sixth cards, in certain cases) are correctly placed back in their respective original positions (the Player area 10P or the Banker area 10B) on the game table 4 (via the camera 2 and the image analyzing device 12). Furthermore, the ranks (values) of the cards 1 are read, and the winner/loser of the game is determined based on the specific rules of the baccarat game.
The image analyzing device 12 compares the winner/loser determined based on the ranks of the cards 1 recognized by image analysis with the winner/loser determined by the card dealing device 3, and detects an abnormal condition (disagreement between the sum of the ranks of the dealt cards 1 and the winner/loser result) that occurs on the game table 1. The card dealing device 3 is configured to be able to read the rank (A, 2, 3, . . . , Q, K) and suit (hearts or spades, for example) of the card 1 manually dealt by the dealer 5, and the controller 14 is configured to be able to check the information on the rank and suit obtained by the image analyzing device 12 from the video (captured by the camera 2) of each card 1 dealt on the game table 4 and the information on the rank and suit read by the card dealing device 3 against each other and determine whether or not the two pieces of information agree with each other. According to the winner/loser result of each game determined by the card dealing device 3, the controller 14 determines whether or not collection of the chips 9 from the customers (game participants) 6 who have lost the game and payment of the chips to the customers (game participants) 6 who have won the game have been properly performed according to the winner/loser result of the game by the image analyzing device 12 analyzing the video of the proceedings of the game.
The image analyzing device 12 and the controller 14 has an artificial intelligence-based or deep learning structure capable of obtaining the information on the rank of the card 1 even if the card 1 dealt on the game table 4 is bent or soiled by the customer 6 during squeezing. The positions, the colors, and the values of the chips 9 can also be discriminated by image analysis and determination based on the artificial intelligence-based computer or control system or the deep learning (structure) technique. Even if the card is bent because of squeezing, which is often performed by the player in the baccarat game or the like, the suit and rank of the card yet to be deformed can be recognized by the artificial intelligence-based computer or control system or the deep learning (structure) technique through self-learning or the like of many examples of image deformation. The artificial intelligence-based computer or control system and the deep learning (structure) technique are already known and available to those skilled in the art, so that detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.
Next, a mechanism by which the present detection system detects and prevents an abnormality or cheating will be described along the flow of the baccarat game. After the customer 6 bets the Player or the Banker as the winner of the baccarat game, the dealer 5 first draws four cards 1, facing down, one by one from the card dealing device 3 onto the game table 4. The dealer 5 places the cards 1 in the areas 10 (the Player area 10P and the Banker area 10B) on the game table 4 near the dealer 5: the first card 1 goes to the Player's hand, the second card 1 goes to the Banker's hand, the third card 1 goes to the Player's hand, and the fourth card 1 goes to the Banker's hand (the first step).
A cheating or mistake in dealing of the cards 1 to the Player's hand or the Banker's hand is detected by the controller 14, and, at the time of the detection or at another appropriate time, a signal or warning of the cheating or mistake is displayed by the indicator lamp 13, the abnormality indicator lamp 16 or a side monitor 112 of the card dealing device 3, a monitor (not shown) provided on the game table 4 or the abnormality indicator lamp 16 or the like, and dealing of cards after the cheating or mistake is detected is inhibited.
The cards 1 placed in the areas 10 (the Player area 10P and the Banker area 10B) on the game table 4 near the dealer 5 as the Player's hand and the Banker's hand in the first step described above are then provided by the dealer 5 to the customer 6 who has betted on the Player (in principle, the customer 6 who has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers 6 have betted on the Player) and the customer 6 who has betted on the Banker (in principle, the customer 6 who has made the highest wager when a plurality of customers 6 have betted on the Banker) (the second step), respectively. In this process, the dealer 5 may make a mistake (or intentionally cheat) in passing the cards 1 to the customers 6. For example, a card 1 dealt to the Player's hand may be provided to the customer 6 who has betted on the Banker, a card 1 dealt to the Player's hand may be provided to a customer 6 who has not made the highest wager in the customers 6 who have betted on the Player, or the dealt cards 1 may be intentionally changed when the cards are provided to the customer. If the controller 14 detects such a mistake (or intentional cheating), at the time of the detection or at another appropriate time, a signal or warning of the cheating or mistake can be displayed by the indicator lamp 13, the abnormality indicator lamp 16 or the side monitor 112 of the card dealing device 3, a monitor (not shown) provided on the game table 4 or the abnormality indicator lamp 16 or the like, and dealing of cards after the cheating or mistake is detected can be inhibited.
The customer 6 who receives the card 1 facing down in the second step turns the card 1 over for squeezing (the third step). If the controller 14 detects that the rank or suit of the card 1 turned over by the customer 6 differs from the rank or suit of the card 1 read when the card 1 is drawn from the card dealing device 3, at the time of the detection or another appropriate time, a signal or warning of the cheating or mistake can be displayed by the indicator lamp 13, the abnormality indicator lamp 16 or the side monitor 112 of the card dealing device 3, a monitor (not shown) provided on the game table 4 or the abnormality indicator lamp 16 or the like, and dealing of cards after the cheating or mistake is detected can be inhibited.
An embodiment of the card dealing device 3 used in the table game system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to
Next, the deal restricting device 30 that restricts entry and exit of cards 1 to and from the card housing part 102 will be described with reference to
Next, a modification of the deal restricting device 30 will be described with reference to
Next, details of the code reading part 108 that reads a code 52 that represents the value (number, rank) of the card 1 from the card 1 when the card 1 is manually drawn from the card housing part 102 will be described with reference to
The object detection sensors 22 and 23 are optical fiber sensors that detect the presence or absence of a card 1, and can detect a movement of the card 1. The object detection sensor 22 is located on an upstream side along the flow of the card 1, and the other object detection sensor 23 is located on a downstream side. As shown in the drawing, the object detection sensor 22 is provided on the upstream side of the UV sensors 20 and 21, and the object detection sensor 23 is provided on the downstream side of the UV sensors 20 and 21. The UV sensors 20 and 21 include an LED (ultraviolet LED) that emits ultraviolet rays and a detector. Marks M of the code 52 are printed on the card 1 with an ultraviolet fluorescent ink that emits light when irradiated with ultraviolet rays. When the card 1 is irradiated with ultraviolet rays (black light), the reflected light from the marks M of the code 52 on the card 1 is detected by the detector. The UV sensors 20 and 21 are connected to the code reading part 108 and the controlling part 109 by cables. The code reading part 108 determines the combination of the marks M and determines the value (rank) that corresponds to the code 52 from the output signal from the detectors of the UV sensors 20 and 21.
Based on the detection signals from the object detection sensors 22 and 23, the start and end of reading by the UV sensors 20 and 21 of the code reading part 108 are controlled by the controlling part 109. In addition, the controlling part 109 determines whether or not the card 1 has normally passed by the card guide part 105 based on the detection signals from the object detection sensors 22 and 23. As shown in
Although various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, of course, those skilled in the art can modify the embodiments described above without departing from the scope of the present invention, and the devices according to the embodiments can be appropriately modified as required by the game to which the present invention is applied.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-198906 | Sep 2015 | JP | national |
This application is a continuation from U.S. application Ser. No. 15/759,255 filed Mar. 12, 2018, which is a national phase application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/JP2016/077115 filed Sep. 14, 2016, which claims priority to JP 2015-198906 filed Sep. 14, 2015, the entire contents of each of which is specifically incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15759255 | Mar 2018 | US |
| Child | 16803429 | US |
