The Craps Game

The Over view of Craps 

The craps table

Players use casino chips rather than cash to bet on the Craps "layout," a fabric surface which displays the various bets. The bets vary somewhat among casinos in availability, locations, and payouts. The tables roughly resemble bathtubs and come in various sizes. In some locations, chips may be called chicks

The casino table bank, which consists of up to 2,000 casino chips stacked in stacks of 20, is against one long side. Typically, the long mirror on the other long side. The table's U-shaped ends feature identical patterns with space for about eight players to stand. An extra group of bets that are employed by players from both ends is located in the middle of the layout. To randomise the dice that land on them, the vertical walls at either end are often coated with a rubberized target surface decorated with tiny pyramid forms. Players may place their reserve chips in one or two horizontal grooves on the top edges of the table walls.

The table is run by up to four casino employees: a boxman seated (usually the only seated employee) behind the casino's bank, who manages the chips, supervises the dealers, and handles "coloring up" players (exchanging small chip denominations for larger denominations in order to preserve the chips at a table); two base dealers who stand to either side of the boxman and collect and pay bets to players around their half of the table; and a stickman who stands directly across the table from the boxman, takes and pays (or directs the base dealers to do so) the bets in the center of the table, announces the results of each roll (usually with a distinctive patter), and moves the dice across the layout with anelongated wooden stick.

Each employee also watches for mistakes by the others because of the sometimes large number of bets and frantic pace of the game. In smaller casinos or at quiet times of day, one or more of these employees may be missing, and have their job covered by another, or cause player capacity to be reduced.

Some smaller casinos have introduced "mini-craps" tables which are operated with only two dealers; rather than being two essentially identical sides and the center area, a single set of major bets is presented, split by the center bets. Responsibility of the dealers is adjusted: the stickman continuing to handle the center bets, and the base dealer handling the other bets as well as cash and chip exchanges.

By contrast, in "street craps", there is no marked table and often the game is played with no back-stop against which the dice are to hit. (Despite the name "street craps", this game is often played in houses, usually on an un-carpeted garage or kitchen floor.) The wagers are made in cash, never in chips, and are usually thrown down onto the ground or floor by the players. There are no attendants, and so the progress of the game, fairness of the throws, and the way that the payouts are made for winning bets are self-policed by the players.

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