Craps Gambling

Craps Dice Control

Does dice control actually work? Craps players are divided about the concept with many believing that the idea of being able to control the outcome of a throw is ridiculous while others are adamant that the strategy has helped them to win at craps. Obviously limited to land-based games, the theory involved in dice control is that a player has the ability to limit the amount of sevens rolled by strategically gripping and throwing the dice in a way which will alter the random outcome of the two dice. However with all casino games, players know that they are not capable of manipulating the throw each time.

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The Concept

The "key" to consistent rolling is by setting the dice in a V formation in your hand which gives you a hard six (3 and 3) on top, the six, (5 and 1) on the front, the eight on one (6 and 2) on the back and the hard eight (4 and 4) on the bottom. Then with a smooth delivery which is still strong enough to get the dice to the other end of table, the player throws down the dice in a way which will minimize the chances of landing on a seven by using the different axes of the table. Sounds realistic right?

Obviously there are external factors which also affect the dice including the age of the felt, marble or timber tables and length of a table. Tiredness, distractions and emotional stability can also affect a player's ability to concentrate on throwing. In order for the strategy to work, players must consistently throw the dice the same way, with the right grip and same proportionate length to the table.

The Odds

There are a total of 36 combinations from a pair of dice and the chances of throwing a seven are usually 1:6 or six out of the possible 36 combinations. The idea of dice control is to attain one non-random roll in a total of 43 rolls which will break-even the game and get rid of the house edge on the six and eight place bets. At a 3-4 5x odds table, the house edge is only 0.374% so it only takes a slight influence of the dice to overcome the house advantage. Sounds tempting doesn't it? Now for the bad bit...it could take thousands of rolls for this advantage over the house to become apparent.

Worth The Practice?

The number of people who are actually capable of influencing the dice are largely outweighed by the amount of people who clearly cannot control the dice despite their best efforts to do so. As a game of pure chance, players will know that when dice are thrown properly down the middle of the table to the back wall, there is no possible way of controlling them. Firstly, the interior sides of the tables are lined at the corners and ends with material textured with rubber pyramid shapes which causes the dice to bounce back from the walls. Secondly, if dice control was a serious threat, don't you think casinos would have done something by now to avoid losing the house edge? A clear example is when a dice shooter scoots the dice across the felt in an effort to avoid the dice from tumbling. So what did the casinos do to avoid this? They inserted "speed bumps" under the felt in the centre of the table which causes the dice to tumble.

Players will find hundreds of online articles explaining the advantages of dice control however the odds prove that in the long run, players are no better or worse off when using this strategy. So save the time wasted learning this theory and jump on the computer instead and either just enjoy craps for the game it is or take up another casino game such as poker which does actually involve the concept of skill.