Crabs and Craps

28 April 2022

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Craps is a great game and I have to say that some of my greatest casino experiences have come rolling “dem bones!”

ABBY: They call those dice “bones” because the original dice were actually made from bones, mostly sheep bones, but there is talk that human bones were sometimes used.

CINDY: “Lots” were actually a type of dice as well. You will recall that in the New Testament the Roman soldiers played “lots” for Christ’s robe.

ABBY: Why did mankind roll “dem bones?” Mostly to find out the will of the gods. You know, whether to invade that village or city or country. “Hey, Zeus, what do you think? Should we nail Sparta?”

CINDY: Obviously, at some point, probably a very early point, the “bones” were also used in gambling contests.

ABBY: How did craps get the name of “craps” in the Western world? I would think that’s a weird name for a game.

CINDY: The original American game began in the South and was called “crabs.” It was played along the Mississippi River. When it started to move North, the Southern accent made the game sound like craps. Crabs therefore became craps.

ABBY: Until the 1960s, the mid-1960s, the game was the favorite casino game of them all. More players spent money on craps than on all the other games including slots. The military men came home from the war and most had learned how to play the game in their branch of service and the casinos capitalized on that. Just check out the number of men who played craps in the 1950s and early 1960s.

CINDY: And even to this day, the game is totally dominated by the men. Maybe five or ten percent of the players might be women. If that many. It could be one of the last bastions of male dominance.

ABBY: Why do you think few women play the game? Women are big players at blackjack and roulette, but they stay away from craps. The World War II generation is gone. But the new players are still almost all male.

CINDY: Maybe the game seems too elaborate for a newbie. They take a look at the wildly colorful layout; along with the players throwing in multiple bets with weird names, it might possibly turn new players off. It would turn off novice men too I would think. I mean the game doesn’t have the population of players that it used to have.

ABBY: There are so many different bets at craps and the game can sound extremely hard to play – but it really isn’t. Maybe having so many dealers working the game can be a put off?

CINDY: Possibly. Still, just think of the number of players we have seen that play the game in the worst possible way.

ABBY: The worst possible way to us. We aren’t the arbiter for what’s right and wrong.

CINDY: Yes, we are.

ABBY: You’re right. Yes, we are. Arbiter away!

CINDY: A game with many bets has many bad bets; those bad bets are almost idiotic to make. One of the main reasons so many craps players are down and out over their careers is that they can’t beat the casino playing the bets the casino really, really wants you to make.

ABBY: Next issue let’s go over the bets to make and the bets not to make at craps.

CINDY: Okay!