Women and Craps

14 November 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Some things have actually gotten better in the casinos for women.

ABBY: Pray tell my dear.

CINDY: Women are more tolerated at the craps tables than ever before in the past.

ABBY: I’m glad you used the word “tolerated” because the older the man the more likely he will be somewhat or a lot put out when we are at the tables.

CINDY: It is nowhere as bad as it used to be. Remember that guys, older guys, mostly World War II and Korean War veterans, would grumble and some would even tell us to go to the slots where we belonged. “Slots are your game,” they’d basically say.

ABBY: Those were the “dark ages” for ladies wanting to play the most exciting game in the house. Not all men were intolerant of us but at every table it seemed there were one or two or a few men who showed their discomfort when you bought in. Craps was and still is to some extent a game for men.

CINDY: Some of the men actually made nasty comments to you too. Usually under their breaths but some would challenge you to your face. Atlantic City was a hotbed of New York males who preferred things their way.

ABBY: Not good comments either. If you came to the table and the shooters started sevening-out, well, that was of course your fault.

CINDY: I think it was a famous street or alleyway game pre-World War II and pre-Korea. In the 1950s, the casinos highlighted craps over the other games. It was the king of the table-games. Women played slots or roulette and men played craps.

ABBY: Of course, men played roulette and blackjack too but the go-to American game was craps. It wasn’t until the blackjack revolution brought in by Edward O. Thorp in the mid-1960s (or thereabouts) that blackjack superseded craps and took over as the number-one game in the house, table game that is. It still is the number-one table game.

CINDY: I think you have blackjack as number one, craps and roulette maybe tied as numbers two – I really don’t know what order those may be in – but other table games go below these.

ABBY: There are a whole bunch of new games, usually card games, where the house edges are somewhat high.

CINDY: Or more likely you must make more than one bet. That can be painful on your bankroll.

ABBY: So, when you go to the casinos do you play the games you always played? Or do you mix it up some.

CINDY: A little mixing up but the new games just don’t seem to have the “it” factor. They are quickly forgotten when they leave the casinos to be put out to pasture. When I think of the casinos I tend to think of the games that have some kind of pedigree, you know, craps, blackjack, and roulette. Some poker for us but not as much as the other games. Mini-baccarat, yes, Pai Gow Poker, yes but now there is a slide from here.

ABBY: I agree. Casinos are big places and the true number-one games are, of course, those slot machines. But somehow the slots don’t grab the gambling population. It’s you and a machine and that’s that.

CINDY: Players love the machines.

ABBY: Yes, they do. I doubt that will ever change in our lives for sure.

CINDY: But things have, indeed, gotten better for female craps players.

ABBY: For sure.