Craps vs. Roulette

24 March 2022

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Now we come to the games that are defined by multiple numbers, roulette and craps.

ABBY: There are two types of roulette games, the American and the French. The American game has 38 numbers, 1-36 and a 0 and a 00. The French game has 37 numbers, 1-36 and a 0. The house edge is higher on the American game at 5.26 percent than on the French game which is 2.7 percent.

CINDY: Craps has 36 numbers with almost all of them repeating at least once. The number that comes up the most is the 7. There are six ways to make that number. The ones that only come up once are the 2 and the 12.

ABBY: Craps used to be the number one game in the casino until the mid-1960’s when blackjack overtook it with the card counting revolution. Roulette has always been popular and is probably the most played game in Europe over the past few centuries.

CINDY: Okay, which is the preferred one?

ABBY: I have to be honest here, right? I prefer craps because most players play it as a communal game, at least emotionally. Roulette is a great game but it is an individual contest. There is really no sense of sharing the game with the other players. But when a shooter is hitting numbers at craps the energy at the table is palpable. You can hear the cheers from across the casino.

CINDY: Not all craps players share in the communal sense. There are the players, called “don’t” or “darkside” players, who play in a way that the other players really dislike them. They root against the numbers. They only make up about five percent of the craps players. Too many if you ask me.

ABBY: There are very few female craps players. I don’t think it was even a percentage after World War II where our military men learned and played the game. You see this in the old movies of the casinos of the 1950s and 1960s. Just men. Women were relegated to the machines.

CINDY: Now it is just men with a smattering of women.

ABBY: Many people think of craps as a very fast game. Is this true?

CINDY: That only depends on how many and what types of bets the player makes. It can actually be a slow game. I bet a pass-line bet and a couple of come bets and the game isn’t going to rush by for me.

ABBY: Frank Scoblete, our fellow columnist, advocates one bet on other players. He only bets more bets on himself. That makes the game really slow.

CINDY: I find it hard to do that but it certainly saves you money.

ABBY: One of the great pleasures of craps is to take those dice in your hand and shoot them. That makes those moments gems.

CINDY: Roulette does have its fascinations too. You can bet as many numbers as you want and you can bet on groups of numbers, colors and types. The game is slower, at least for me, than craps. Is it a good game? I think it is. You can play it if you want to sit and relax, at least if the table isn’t full.

ABBY: These two games are definitely games players love to play.

CINDY: Absolutely!