A FLAWED DIE AT A VEGAS CASINO CRAPS GAME

Update March 7, 2017  There are lots of rumors about casinos that use flawed or unbalanced dice. Usually these rumors are false and they are spread by craps players who were unlucky, or perhaps they were spread by dice influencers who were able to control their shots. It's easy to blame the dice. But I recently played at a Las Vegas casino where there really was a problem with one of the dice.

I am not going to mention the Las Vegas casino where I encountered the flawed die because frankly it wasn't the casino's fault. The fault -- if there was a fault -- was at the factory that manufactured the dice.

I was at the craps table at that casino at 4-AM, when new dice are usually introduced to the various craps games in the casino. A new, sealed box, of fresh dice from the factory had just been delivered to the pit and the pit boss opened the new factory-sealed box and delivered five fresh dice to each table.

You know when you have factory-fresh dice: they are clean and smooth with razor-sharp edges and corners. You can feel the sharpness with your fingers and sometimes the corners and edges are so sharp they feel like they can cut you.

I was given new dice when it was my turn to be the shooter. I picked two dice from the five and made my first throw and established a point. Then I threw a second time and a third. But when I gripped the dice for my fourth throw one die felt odd -- and it was odd. Some of the material used to fill a pip (dot) for the face showing a six had partially peeled away and had created a flap of material.

I realized that this flap of material could alter the performance of the die because the material could stick to the material on the craps table. In a worst case it could trap the face of the die with a six to the bottom.

Sometimes having one die face frozen (such a six) is a good thing. If a Six was always out of play, and with a 1 on the opposite side always in play I would never see a 6-6 show. But what if I wanted a 6-6 to show?

In fact, in this game, I did want a 6-6 to show because I was playing a craps game where a 6-6 was needed to win the ALL bet or the TALL bet in the side bet called Bonus Craps. Below is a photo of a casino craps game with a Bonus Craps layout. As you can see, hitting midnight or 12 or 6-6 is necessary to win the big paying Bonus Craps bet.