Is Dice Control Real?

Gaming writer Stanford Wong appeared on a podcast/radio show recently where he was questioned about the legitimacy of dice control. Mr. Wong wrote a dice control book a few years ago.

During the interview Mr. Wong basically said he believed dice control was possible but difficult. He said he now thinks it can only be accomplished by a select few dedicated individuals that studied the techniques and continually practiced the skill.

While doing his research for his book, Mr. Wong was trained by the Golden Touch Craps Group and he still recommends them for anyone that wants to pursue the craft.

After hearing Mr. Wong I thought about a post I made on the Golden Touch Craps private message board that addressed the question of whether dice control is real.

Here is that post, updated and edited a bit.

So, my friends, I ask you, do you believe in dice control? Are there people that have an ability, albeit through practice or natural innate talent, to control how the dice land?

Is this real or are all the magazine articles, the books, and the DVDs just bunk?

Are the thousands of members of the various Internet message boards from the various dice control "camps" all just a bunch of deluded gamblers imagining they found the holy grail of gambling?

Can a person pick up two cubes, toss them in the air, have them travel seven
feet, hit a wall covered in pyramids and have them land with two specific faces up? The short answer is NO!

The longer and more controversial answer is ...yes..... sort of.....

To explore this we should first start with one premise. Let's say, we
conduct an experiment in which we have a machine with a mechanical arm. It is designed to exacting standards and will swing in EXACTLY the same way at the same speed, with the same area of motion, utilizing the same forward dynamic each time resulting in dice landing softly in the same spot.

In the experiment dice are loaded into the machine in different "sets," that means different arrangements of the pips.

Each set is tossed one million times. At the conclusion of the experiment, the data is fed into a computer. We should all be able to agree that the results would indicate clear patterns for each set.

Okay, are you still with me? I will say it again; I believe each dice set
tossed the same way will result in a discernible pattern. Such a pattern, if repeatable, can be easily exploited to gain an advantage against a casino.

The problem is we are not machines and there are many factors at
work in the real casino, so the "easy exploitation pattern" becomes a
bit nebulous in the real world.

Bringing the laboratory to the casino is the challenge. The first hurdle is your training. The mechanical arm is designed to do the same exact thing over and over. You as the shooter must be able to constantly and consistently toss the dice over and over again.

Sounds easy, but repeating the same motion is very difficult. To do this
you must practice, practice, practice and practice some more.

In the practice session, the result of the toss is secondary to the quest for consistency. When you get to the point in which you can do the same thing each time, you have reached the first level. This is just the first step on a long journey.

It is however a very big step. Congratulations!

Next you have to practice, practice and practice some more. The
difference from before is that now you will be recording your results for future
analysis. If you survive this without losing interest or your arm falling off, you will discern your patterns. You are now ready to try this out in the casino.

When you walk into the casino, the first thing you realize is that this is a
lot different from your den, where it is quiet and perhaps you had Sinatra
or Dean playing in the background when you practiced. The casino is noisy.
There are many distractions: cocktail servers, people coming and going, winners cheering and losers cursing.

You step up to the table with a bunch of other players. You are lucky;
you are able to get the spot where you practiced from at home. You place your hard-earned cash on the felt and it is exchanged for chips. When the
dice come to you, your hands are sweating. You are wondering if the casino boss is going to toss you out when he sees your throw. You pick up the dice, fumble to set them and promptly seven out.

A few more times around the table and your bankroll is up and down. You are
feeling more comfortable as time goes by. As you relax you are starting
to have more confidence. You remember the patterns that the endless hours
of practice revealed. You are eschewing all bets that do not fall within your pattern. Things are starting to happen; you are having longer rolls. You are starting to like this stuff.

In the weeks and months ahead, you continue to practice. You have good
and bad days.

You are an educated player; you do not want to gamble with money needed
for your home and family. You have a strict rule of only risking money from your "401G," an account set aside just for gambling money.

You are on the way to becoming a threat to the casino -- a minor one -- because your edge even in the best of circumstances is small. But you are
no longer just a sucker hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.

So getting back to the question, can someone control each roll of the
dice? I have never seen it. Plus I am not aware of any legitimate
person that makes that claim. Can some people influence the dice
and exploit that against the casino? Yes.

Believe me, the numbers of such successful shooters are small. We have to be prudent in investing our cash expecting a positive EV.

Just look at the Internet message boards. There are thousands of members. Maybe several hundred or so have stuck with this for the long run. How
many people have come and gone from the field through the years? Many
come on strong and burn out quickly.

We also have to be realistic. A few years back on a public Internet craps related message board, there was a guy who held a regular full time job. He was new to dice setting but he was very gung ho, to say the least. He was planning to quit his job and support his wife and two children with dice
control. I posted a diatribe blasting his plan and explaining the realities of the life of a "professional gambler."

I made a few enemies of the other posters that were encouraging him,
but I felt I had to open his eyes to the real world. This is a great hobby or craft, but it is not the way to feed your family.

The road of "dice influencing" is filled with potholes. There are temptations to make high house advantage bets, or bet too much. Even I have been fooled and I know what to look for in a shooter. More
than once I thought I was at the table with a bona fide dice influencer
only to find this ersatz dice controller was just a random roller that read an article or watched a self-proclaimed expert's YouTube video.

If you love the game of craps and you have the means
to play the game without risking your lifesavings, you may want to give
this craft a try. I have found that it has increased my enjoyment of the game. At the end of the day, for most people, dice influencing is like chicken soup for a cold -- it may help but it certainly cannot hurt.