Question of the Day - 21 January 2018

[Editor's Note: As is our wont, we handed this one off to our man "Behind the Curtain," Andrew Uyal, floor supervisor at the Cromwell and writer of the blog of the same name on our sister site, GamblingWithAnEdge.com. Andrew's posts appear every Friday and are well worth reading on their own, but also for the lively discussions that often ensue. Take it, Andrew]:

The first thing that needs to be done here is to get in touch with a host at the casino you’re interested in playing at. You can easily do this by calling the casino operator and asking for the marketing department or the host on duty. Casino hosts generally handle any type of reserved-game situation.

There isn’t really a set guideline for what's required, as many casinos have different rules. Sometimes the rules are fluid, too, so talking to a host is key. He or she will work out all the details with the table-games department. I would do this at least a month before your trip, so you’ll know what to expect as your time draws nearer. 

While there aren’t any set requirements for reserve gaming, I can tell you the minimum bet on the Strip will probably be at least $25 for everyone at the table. Reserving a game for any less doesn't do the casino much good, so it would be unlikely to happen.

As for which casinos are the better candidates to provide you with this courtesy, it’s tough to say. Smaller locals casinos might not make you bet as much. On the other hand, they could also be less inclined to reserve a dice game, due to the fact that they don't have as many tables as a large Strip-size casino. The large casinos will probably be more open to reserve gaming, but they’ll want the quality of play (meaning the minimum bet) to be high.

The good news is there’s no additional cost or fee to getting a game reserved. There is also no minimum length of play, though the host and table-games manager will likely keep an eye on the amount of time your group plays. If you just show up for a half-hour, or there are only a couple of shooters, you might hear about it. But if you show up and play for a few hours or so, get some money in action, and are appreciative of them doing it for you, there won’t be any issues.

Playing on a table with just your group is absolutely the most fun way to gamble. Hopefully, this works out to where you can all go and give everyone the chance to shoot the dice, and everyone has a blast. I’m always interested to see if there are any Don’t Pass players in a group all there together. That always makes things interesting!