Bill's Gambling Hall & Saloon in Las Vegas is the only casino in the world offering "Rapid Craps," a mechanized crap table with a single live dealer, though that will change soon. Rapid Craps has already passed its Nevada field trials, which means its eligible to be placed on the floor of any casino in the state. The game's developer, ShuffleMaster, says it's instituting some "hardware modifications" before embarking on a full-scale roll-out that should make it available in many more casinos and jurisdictions.
This is an interesting new option that's similar to the big mechanized roulette wheels that showed up about five years ago. Although a single live dealer controls the game and the players throw a real set of dice on a standard-sized table, all of the betting, as well as the paying and collecting, is done electronically. Hence there are no dealer errors in payouts and there's a level of game protection built in (which is why it requires only one dealer).
Better yet, the onus is taken off of the players to do the tough calculations involved in making certain bets. For example, we purposely made a non-standard odds bet of $11 on a point of 6. If a player did that on a live game it would create a problem, because the exact payout on a winner is $13.20 and live games don't deal in small change. But when the bet won, the computer logged a perfect $13.20 on the electronic tally (and upon cashout, the 20ยข was paid with a quarter, giving us the best of the breakage). This is a good option for beginners, who can now give craps a try without worrying about making embarrassing mistakes.
The downside is that the technology is new, so there's a learning curve involved in being able to navigate the system. So what? Slow is good when playing negative-expectation games. When we played, the dealers were cheery and helpful and the game ramped up fast once it got started, creating a fun social experience. We think you'll see it showing up in more casinos soon. For more on Rapid Craps, check out the April Las Vegas Advisor.
