Slick's Las Vegas Then & Now: 15th in Series

Craps, Where Men are Men

Seven you win, seven you lose. They hand you square dice and tell you to roll them, round chips and tell you to stack them. Times sure have changed. After playing dice since I was a kid, I looked up one day and there was a female craps dealer. It reminded me of when I saw my first female bus driver. I thought, Okay…I’ll give the female dealer a shot.

If you’re thinking of a career working as a casino dealer, you should know that most of the bosses come from the crap pit. The tips are usually bigger in craps and it’s easier to find work since it’s the hardest table game to deal. Another plus is when you get older you can sit down and be a boxman.

Here’s the simple dictionary definition of craps, although I can assure you the game is anything but simple: A gambling game played with two dice in which a first throw of 7 or 11 wins, a first throw of 2, 3, or 12 loses the bet, and a first throw of any other number (a point) must be repeated to win before a 7 is thrown, which loses both the bet and the dice.

The dice go around from player to player. When it’s your turn, there’s no point in shooting because the first roll is the “come out” roll. It’s a game where you can make several bets at one time, just like roulette. Of course, there’s a lot more to this game, but you can go to any bookstore (The Gambler’s Bookshop on Tropicana Blvd. in downtown Las Vegas is a good start), to read up on the game of craps.

Some of the biggest scores are made at the crap table. All you have to do is learn to say, “press it” which means double it up. And if you’re in the mood to piss people off, bet the “don’t.” But be careful not to “crap out.”