Playing in Land Casinos

A craps table in a land casino is like a living, breathing organism. With a hardworking team of casino employees to make sure everything is running smoothly, and a horde of screaming craps players rolling the dice, placing bets, and buying chips. For a new player this is definitely chaotic and intimidating if you aren’t prepared.

There are generally five employees working at any given craps table. You’ve got two dealers, one stickman, one boxman, and a relief dealer. The dealers do most of the ‘grunt’ work. They are responsible for collecting losing bets, paying on winning bets, and providing players with chips.

The boxman is seated across from the players, and is responsible for keeping track of the game. He deals with all of the cash transactions at the table, and he is responsible for dealing with any disputes at the table (generally over dealer mistakes).

The stickman’s job is to announce every dice roll and entice players to place some new and different bets. He might not be essential to play but he adds greatly to the environment of the game and definitely helps to keep things exciting. Also by calling the dice roll he eliminates the need for every player to immediately see the dice to know what is going on. This is naturally a huge benefit for players who have poor sight.

So you’re walking through a casino towards the Craps tables and you suddenly realize that although you have hundreds of dollars in your wallet, you don’t have any chips! Relax, go to the table of your choice (start with low limit table until you get the hang of things) and have a seat. Take out however much money you’d like to have in chips (probably about $100) and drop it on the table within reach of the dealer and say “Change.” Remember you can’t actually hand your money to the dealer, you have to drop it on the table and let them pick it up. The dealer will pick up the money and pass it to the boxman who will count it and tell the dealer how much money you just dropped. The dealer then counts out the appropriate chips and places them in front of you on the table. You then pick up the chips and place them in the groove cut in the table, and you’re ready to play. This whole process takes only a few moments and is both convenient for players and efficient for the casino.

After reading this article you really should be better off than 99% of new players, but it doesn’t mean you’ll take to a craps table like a fish to water. You need to spend a little time at some low limit tables to get the hang of what is going on around you. If you still don’t feel comfortable sitting at a table for the first time it’s probably a good idea to play a few rounds of online craps to get the rules under your belt. If you're planning on going to Las Vegas to play, here is a great page about the specifics of Vegas Casinos. Make sure to check out our casino review page to find the right online casino for you.

Playing in Land Casinos

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