Avoid Crapless Craps like the plague
QUESTION: How does a crapless table measure up to a conventional crap table as far as house advantages? Also, a floor manager at a casino suggested I go to a website called wizardofodds.com. He said it would help me to understand better the world of probability. Do you have any experience with it? — Jerry
ANSWER: Here we go again, Jerry. What you stumbled upon is an offering called Crapless Craps or Never Ever Craps. It's another example of a casino game designed to relieve you of your hard-earned cash.
In this modified variation of a regular crap game, you don't lose on the come-out roll when the shooter tosses a craps, a term for the numbers 2, 3 or 12. Instead, the number rolled, (2, 3 or 12) automatically becomes your point, just as 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 does on a standard game. Additionally, you do not win if the shooter throws a natural 11. It, too, becomes the point.
With these shabby extra rules, the house now holds a 5.4% edge on your Pass line bet versus a 1.4% edge on a typical crap game.
I would highly recommend passing on Crapless Craps, whose house edge on the non-suspecting player is nearly quadrupled.
You also mentioned wizardofodds.com in your question. For math junkies like me, the site has no peers. The Wizard of Odds is Michael Shackleford, a professional actuary who has made a career of analyzing casino games. Shackleford’s site provides the mathematically correct strategies and information for nearly every casino game in existence.
In this column, I am spreading smart gambling to the masses at a Gambling 101 level. The Wizard’s gambling information level is more like Gambling 105. If you have any inclination to study gambling mathematics at the highest level, then yes, Jerry, I highly recommend wizardofodds.com.
Q: With the proliferation of sports betting taking place online and with illegal bookies, do you think it will ever become legal to bet on sports in states besides Nevada? — Jeff W.
A: Of the kazillion of dollars bet on sports each year, only 2% of the action is legal. The remaining 98% is wagered with a bookie or online through gambling websites overseas.
Four states allow some form of wagering on NFL games. Of course, there is Nevada, but there's also limited betting in Delaware, Oregon and Montana. New Jersey keeps trying to clear the way for sports betting, but keeps losing in its fight. Also standing in the way is the 1992 federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. That law would need to be repealed before other states can allow sports betting.
Delaware, Oregon, and Montana were permitted to sanction NFL betting because they offered some form of legal sports betting before 1992. Those states tethered sports betting to a state lottery or a fantasy game they already were operating, so they were grandfathered in.
By the way, Jeff, I am sitting on multiple questions regarding weekly fantasy football and its legitimacy and legality. A column on this topic is coming soon.
Mark Pilarski is a contributing editor for numerous gambling publications. E-mail questions to pilarski@markpilarski.com.
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