card dispenser for participating games involving an element of chance sequentially dispenses a stack of random cards placed into the device . the dispenser includes a hopper having a dispensing opening and a track divided by uniformly spaced upwardly directed transverse ribs into a series of adjacent co - planar card receiving surfaces . elongate guide members on the track and mating channels on downwardly depending skirts on the hopper permit the hopper to move relatively to and along the track to bring the dispensing opening into registry with successive ones of the card receiving surfaces , the hopper advancing the lower - most cards in the stack until deposited on a surface while the transverse ribs prevent movement of the deposited cards in the direction of hopper movement and therefore retain the cards in the deposited positions thereof .