Friday, March 28, 2008

Cheating At Craps: Loaded Dice and Dice Control


CRAPS CHEATING has not gotten much press in recent times, mainly because of the poker craze and all its attendant cheating, both online and in live poker rooms. Add to that the card counting frenzy tied into the MIT Blackjack Team movie and other forms of advantage play in 21, and craps really takes a back seat when the subject turns to casino cheats.

But what really is the current state of affairs with craps cheating? Are there still incidents of switching dice, loaded dice or dice control? Well, the only form of dice cheating or manipulating worth talking about is controlling the dice, and only because it's NOT worth trying. I have witnessed numerous so-called dice dominators, dice terminators, dice exterminators, dice regulators and dice-just-about-everything-else-"ators" putting their talents on display and have yet to be convinced that any single one of them can control anything more than the bullshit they roll across the table in place of the dice! Get what I'm talking about? I'm saying that dice control is simply "no roll!"

As far as switching dice into a craps game goes, it's still relatively easy, but the problem for the dice cheats doing the switching is that loaded and otherwise gaffed dice will not stay in play too long before an alert boxman or stickman running the table notices them. If you've ever seen a boxman holding up a die to the light while rotating it between his fingers and examining it, he is looking for exactly that--dice that don't belong in the game. Then a simple replay of video footage by surveillance will pick up the switch that got the crooked dice into the game--and will soon get the crooked craps shooters switched into jail.

In short, apart from pastposting and chip manipulation scams, the pickings in craps cheating have grown rather slim.