Question of the Day - 20 May 2024

I have seen it in other places, but I couldn’t tell you where. I usually don’t pay attention to the sucker bets and undoubtedly this is another one of that gouging genre. Each Over/Under 7 bet has 15 winning combinations and 21 losing combinations. Comparing that to the field bet: the field bet has 16 winning combinations and “only” 20 losing combinations, plus two of the dice combinations (2 and 12) pay double (and 12 pays triple in a few “generous” casinos). The field bet has a 5% house advantage (2.5 % where 12 pays triple). So Over/Under 7 is a much worse bet than the field bet (Shackelford could tell you how much worse). It also has the added benefit for the casino of not having to pay a vendor for a copyrighted side bet.

So I doubt the bet started in Reno, but probably emanated from a greedy table game operator looking for an easy to understand bet for craps newbies, that would allow them to be fleeced until they knew better.

I’m alone in suggesting that “wising up” your players, craps players or otherwise, is a better marketing strategy to establish trust and grow business.