Aspects of the invention relate to fully automated systems and methods for shuffling and scrambling playing instruments, such as cards, before being dealt to one or more players. In one embodiment, a rotating device is utilized to scramble playing instruments. In yet a further embodiment, the rotating device is coupled with air, vacuum, or combinations thereof to further scramble the cards. The scrambling device may be coupled to an aligning device for realigning the playing instruments upon being adequately shuffled. According to another aspect of the invention, physical cards are utilized in a gaming environment that may be scrambled, shuffled, and/or played remotely over a network. In one embodiment, the physical cards are traditional poker-style gaming cards. The cards include at least one identifier that may be read upon the card being dealt. The identifier may contain information that is remotely communicated to a player.