Craps – The Most Exciting Casino Game You Will Ever Play

A piece of gaming news that made a lot of headlines recently was about New Jersey based Patricia Demauro, who set an astounding new world record for the longest ever Craps roll at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. Her roll went on for 4 hours and 18 minutes, leaving behind the previously held record of 3 hours and 6 minutes by a mile and a half. This reminded me, though not as glamorous as some other casino numbers, what an exciting and fun game Craps can be.

Craps is arguably the most high-energy dice game played in brick and mortar casinos across the globe. Every gaming regular knows which area of the casino sees the most hustle bustle and verbal banter by participants and audiences alike. It is not uncommon to hear a lot of loud voices and yelling emanating from a craps table. The excitement of Craps lies in its inherent volatility, the suspense and anticipation of the rolling dice, the active audience participation, and the dealers and stickmen dishing out those popular Craps colloquialisms.

The Craps Table

Casino Craps is played on a custom made table with two dices. The quality and well being of the dice are central to any casino Craps table, as they can be decisive for a throw to be a winning or a losing one. No casino wants a dispute or an unfair advantage or disadvantage on account of a damaged or disfigured dice. A lot of casinos these days have standard dice replacement rules. Some change them as often as every eight hours of play! Casinos are also very particular about the manner in which players handle and roll the dice.

The casino Craps table is usually manned by a Stickman, a Boxman, and two dealers. Up to 20 participants can play on a standard casino Craps table, where every player receives a round of dice rolls each, and in case they do not want a throw of the dice, bets can be placed on the throws made by others.

Rules of the Game – How to Play Craps?

The game is principally based on the ‘Pass Line’ on the table, and the dice values of 7 and 11. The game starts with the players placing bets on the table. The main focus lies on achieving scores of 7 and 11 on the pass line for initial wins. Values such as 2, 3, or 12 are usually losing scores on this line. Most other rolled values give players a predetermined number of points. A bet is won every time a rolled value is repeated before a value of 7 is rolled. There is also a ‘Do Not Pass Line’ on the Craps table, which is the exact opposite of the pass line. Here, numbers like 2, 3, or 12 are winning rolls, whereas rolls of 7 and 11 makes you lose the bet.

Similarly, there is the ‘Field Line’, which gets you wins on rolls like 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, etc. Other table lines include the ‘Come Line’ and the ‘Do Not Come Line’, which are similar to the pass and do not pass lines. And then there are bets you can place on the Horn, the Big 6, the Big 8, Any Seven, and Craps.

This is a game where luck plays a significant part, and payouts are usually high. The kind of euphoria that Craps can bring for players as well as their friends and supporters, is unmatched by most other casino game I know.