Craps

Craps is not only considered to be the most exciting casino game in which dice are tossed, it's also known for offering gamblers the best possible odds of winning compared to most other casino games. Over its long history, the game has even developed its very own vocabulary. In fact, a lot of the action taking place around the craps table comes from the participants themselves exchanging the many colorful craps expressions.


How Online Casino Craps is Played

To play craps, players wager money on what they believe will be the resulting outcome following the roll (or series of rolls) of 2 dice. Participants play against the casino only and alternate tossing the dice. It makes no difference which player throws the dice as all players place their bets on the same roll.


The person tossing the dice is referred to as the ‘shooter' and the first roll in each new round of play is known as the ‘come-out roll.' All wagers are contingent upon the total resulting sum of both dice, and never solely on a single die.

The list of various craps bets is extensive. For more in-depth information on how to play craps, click on Craps Strategies, Craps Rules and Craps Terms.

A traditional land-based casino craps table is managed by 4 casino staff members: the boxman who watches over the chips and manages the dealers; 2 base dealers standing on each side of the boxman who collect & pay bets; and the stickman who stands on the other side of the table directly opposite the boxman, calls out the results after each roll and gathers the dice using a long wooden stick. The stickman also manages the wagers placed at the center of the table.


At the start of every new round, the stickman provides each new shooter with 5 dice from which the shooter selects 2. He or she is then required to make the minimum table wager on either the ‘pass line' or the ‘don't pass line.'


Shooters are permitted to toss the dice using one hand only. (Online casino players may use as many hands as they have.) Also, the dice must bounce off the table's surrounding wall. The reason for this is to prevent would-be cheaters from replacing the dice or attempting what are known as ‘controlled shots.'


History of Craps

Craps is said to have originated in Egypt way back in the 16th Century BC thus making it, in all likelihood, the oldest game of chance in which dice are employed. Some believe craps is the product of a game dating back to the Middle Ages known as Hazard. Others believe the game emanated from the time of the Roman Empire when - as a means of amusement - soldiers supposedly carved pig's knuckles into the form of cubes and tossed them into their inverted shields, hence the expression "to roll the bones."


Craps, as we know it today, is undoubtedly the fastest, loudest and most exhilarating of all the conventional and online casino games. And, as mentioned above, it provides the best possible odds of any land-based or online casino game.