Photo Courtesy (Nevada Casino History)
Fellow reader and gambler Bill asked a few questions recently about the safety and security of casino dice after watching a friend get crushed at a craps table in Vegas. The questions are understandable, and Nevada casinos used to have some problems with shaved dice that gave a small percentage to a players that brought them into play, or a bigger advantage to the casino that used them.
In 1967, the Riverside casino in Reno, recently upgraded with a Teamster's loan, was shut down for using crooked dice. Yeah, it used to happen. I interviewed an old-time pit boss who had suspicions about some dice players and got security to let him into their hotel room at the Sands casino and they confiscated a satchel full of crooked dice. And not just any dice, dice that were already logo'ed and ready to slip into games at a dozen Vegas casinos.
However, the dice manufacturers licensed by gaming jurisdictions across the US are very careful with their inspection and quality control. I toured TK Specialty's dice manufacturing plant in Reno one afternoon, and I learned a thing or two. Dice are calibrated to within 1/10,000 of an inch - weighted and balanced to perfection. The "spots" are balanced also, so the one side is just as heavy as the six side. Dice are clear so no dice can have lead weights, and you'll sometimes see a boxman put a die between his thumb and middle finger to give it a little spin and give it a rudimentary check.
In addition, dice are sometimes inspected and calibrated at the casino level, and Gaming Control periodically arrives at casinos and ask for the dice right off a crap game. Then the dice are taken away and tested. It's a pretty good system, but not perfect.
It's not perfect because most casino gaming departments are very lax with the dice they put on games. Even if they are kept in a vault, once out, it wouldn't be impossible for an unscrupulous employee to put some questionable dice on a game. Sure, Gaming Control could show up, but then what? And, I've seen old dice on games with actual felt burns on them and even nicks and chips that can skew the weight of the dice.
On the other hand, 99.9 percent of the time the dice do just what they are designed to do, give you a fair roll. And fair rolls at the crap game wind up with the casino holding a profit at the end of the night - the nature of gambling, and what might appear as strange or conspiratorial to the player is usually just good old probability taking over.
Comments
Yep – That’s why is takes a bit of time to gain maturity at the CRAPS table. Soon things will come your way but until then, one must minimize losses and maximize gains. Then you can build your stake.
While I am the skeptic that does not buy into the normal arguments about casions don’t need to cheat because they are guranteed a percentage etc. because I have seen plenty of casinos go broke to void that theory, I do believe that craps would be tough to cheat at by the casinos. Particulalry becasue it is pssible for players to bet for and against the 7.
I have seen dealers chaeting at the Ramada in Reno that was later closed by the gaming commission.
I have seen innavuarte slot machine payoffs. The casion quietly paid me all of my loss at the machine.
I have see a touch screen machine that would not let me make a particular selection – that must have been the jackpot.
So there is cheating, and the gaming inspectors are few and far between and are widely usedby casinos to stalk players suspected of chearting. First of all there are not enough inspectors to police all the casinos and second if they can catch the palyers and the casions for cheating, whose side are they really on?
Most jurisdictions require the gaming officers to be POST trained and are duly appointed peace officers. They are closest to a detective in a police department – and they are impartial.
Amen Dar !!!
Al Moe – thanks for bringing the subject up, but I wish you would verify the real facts …. not just facts you made up — like what is your source for “99.9 percent of the time the dice do just what they are designed to do, give you a fair roll” ?? … live casino facts in Las Vegas will show you otherwise.
Also, how do you know dice are “weighted and balanced to perfection” ?? — did you actually put the dice on a balancing caliper ? You should try it sometime before you write an article full of false assumptions. Nevada casino Dice are not shaved, they are unbalanced way too often. Casinos are run by corporations — corporations are greedy and will increase their profit margin any way they can, including using unbalanced dice.
The facts are that dice are not sanded flush like they were years ago and the white pips are made of a resin compound, often with titanium which is much heavier than the plastic cube — add centrifugal force and gravitational physics will not give you fair results. Only Colorado and Australia will give you fair dice “99.9 percent of the time” because they have codified dice laws that are enforced — Nevada lacks both dice laws and proper enforcement (fox guarding the hen house problem).
If you want to learn more, read our findings at http://crapsadvantageplayers.blogspot.com/
Trust the dice are fair, but a true advantage player will verify …..
I tend to agree with Harley. I have seen and tracked dice rolls at specific casinos around the country, and tables at specific casinos usually come up 7s more than 6/36 (1/6) of the time, and the dice come up 2-5, 1-6! It could be a natural variance in probability, but I play at these casinos and at these tables 4-10 hours a week, year round.
Now, Dar commented that you can bet for or against the 7, well either way the casino has built in “house advantages”–by paying your their payout, as opposed to the theoretical “probability”–some bets have a house advantage of over 16% on the craps table! “Free odds” on the Pass, or Don’t Pass are the only bet on the craps table that pays you without a house cut of the theoretical probability.
Any way people are greedy and so are casinos; casino have house advantages, and an extra 0.5 to 3% advantage the casino house could get on “unbalanced dice” is small to you and me (who may only play a little each week, or only a little bit on vacation), but it is huge to the casinos’ coffers!
I too, have seen many strange things over the years. I’ve seen players put in 100′s of hours at video poker and never hit a royal, and I’ve seen (more than once) a player hit three royals in an evening. Yes, the odds are way out of line – read about quantum physics – it happens. I’ve also seen two monster craps rolls that lasted over an hour each. The odds of that are also way out of line………………
Especially when you learn that in craps, 29.6% of all rolls are come out rolls.
The average number of rolls before the dice go to a new shooter (player misses their point) is 8.5
I followed comments from Harley suggesting that the casino dice are loaded (weighted) in the house’s favor. I built a precision balance that could determine if the balance was fair or not, and all the dice I tested came up with results that everything was okay.
The ongoing accusations that casino dice are not fair and instead are loaded could be true, but after investing thousands of dollars of my personal money to follow up on Harley Horn’s hunches, I don’t believe that it is true. But it could be. If the house wanted to keep more money, biasing the 12′s to occur slightly more often could work. But all you need to do is bet the don’ts if you think the house had the dice weighted towards the sevens if that’s your belief system.
I have lost months of time from my life following up on comments like those left by Harley, and yet nobody else has been willing to put their money where there mouth is when it comes to this issue like I have. So I am self-appointing myself as the authority to verify such claims as I have the equipment to do it, and I don’t know of any other equipment out there that does a better job.
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