Voices from the craps tables

Most of the time when you play a casino game you are only interested in yourself — what bets you have made; how much money you have won or lost; whether you should stay or go. Even at a craps table, where cheering with other players is the norm during hot rolls, we really aren't listening to anyone but our own inner self or, perhaps, demons.

Listen now, for the voices of craps players are often loud; they can be happy or anxious, miserable or delighted, and what these players have to say is often amusing and informative or crazy. So I walked around the craps tables and here is what the players had to say to me, personally, and to the air, personally.

"Oh man," shouted one player, his eyes raised to the ceiling. "I don't win now I am broke; done for. Oh, come on, come on, one little break, God that is all I ask. Can't You do that for me just once?"

"The men don't like most women at the craps tables," stated Jane. "But that doesn't bother me. They don't own the tables and I am not going off like a good little girl and play the slots. Let the men who don't like me here go play the slots. I had five brothers and I know how to handle myself."

"Ooo! Ah! Yeahhhh!!!" shouted one blazing-eyed individual who had just hit a parley on the hard 8. "Oh, momma, oh, momma! Do I go again? Do I go again people?" The "people" did answer him because none of the "people" at the table was interested in his bet — almost no one knew he had a bet up as everyone was looking at his or her own bets. "Yeah, yeah, nothing adventured (sic) nothing gained I always say. Press that hard eight boys," he said to the female stick person.

"Craps is a great game," said Marty, "but it can be a game that eats you alive. Look around and watch how many players make rotten bets that kill their bankrolls. Almost all craps players have a little nut in them that drives them to explode into irrational behavior in terms of their betting at the game. Some of these players even know that the bad bets have payoffs that stink because the house is taking so much out of them but the players still make the bets. I think they get caught up in the excitement like rioters in a mob."

Jimmy said, "There is no other game like craps. It is just such a powerful game because it seems almost like we are all worshipping some ancient god or something. I know it sounds crazy but how can you compare any other game to this? Slots are boring. So is blackjack and the other games. Craps gets your juices flowing. I know my juices are flowing right now. I never have this feeling except at a craps table."

"I should quit playing this stupid game," stated one man who wished to remain anonymous. "I can't win to save my life. I just made 10 hardways in a row and lost all of them one after another. I drop an any seven a bunch of times and the seven comes up all right but after I bet it and lost. It doesn't want to come up when I am on it. I play the don't and the right side wins; I play the right side and the don't side wins. I have no luck. I have no luck at all. But what am I to do? I can't win and I can't quit."

"I've been playing craps for 50 years before there was an Atlantic City casino that ever existed and there was only Vegas and illegal games too," states Joey from Brooklyn. "I'm retired now and I don't play for the big stakes like I used to but it doesn't matter to me because it is a great game even at small stakes. It is the game that keeps going on forevermore. There is a craps game every second in America now; every second people are rooting for their numbers to hit. This is the eternal game, sonny boy, and I'll keep playing until they bury me six feet under, which if I keep losing will be in about an hour."

"I played blackjack and some old creep started to tell me how to play my hands," says Emily. "Excuse me, it's my money honey. Then I tried the slots. Booorrrrrring! Then I finally took my shot with craps and I ain't ever leaving this game. All the men here, you got to know how to handle them; they become pussycats if you know what makes them tick. Women know men, at least this woman does."

There they are, some of the voices of the craps players. If you've never tried the game why don't you give yourself a treat? You might never go back to any other game.