From our man on the Strip:
Computerized Craps
is on the Las Vegas Strip -- "Rapid Craps" has been installed at Bill's (owned
by Harrah's).
Saturday night and we are taking a short cut thru Bill's on our way to
Caesar's when we glance over to see a new craps table near the front door that
replaced the old Fire Bet table ..... This craps table has a new layout and
monitors -- YES, I said monitors for making bets -- NO CHIPS in your landing
zone!!
Stats:
- Roughly 12 foot inside diameter lengthwise.
- Widest craps table I have ever seen.
- 14 monitors around the table all with very comfortable chairs.
- Monitor has roughly inside dimensions of 8.5 inches wide x 6.5 inches high,
slanted at about a 25 degree angle.
- Monitors' betting software has similar characteristics to Shuffle Master's
Rapid Roulette (touch screen and timer controlled).
- 1 Dealer (Stick) with a Pit Boss (Supervising roaming Box) - Stick can be on
either side of the table.
- Live dice (red clear unbalanced dice on a Saturday night, of course).
- Throw your buy-in on the table and the Stick will enter the amount into your
balance on your monitor.
- J.C. describes the surface as a hard satin microfibre -(I concur).
- 7 rows of hard rubber pyramids at end walls.
- No inverted roof at the top of the rubbers (inside of rail is nearly flush
to the rubber pyramid slab).
- One On-Off puck in center of table controlled by Stick.
- Only chips on table are in the table bank and only used to Color-up exiting
players after they touch the Color-up button on their monitor.
- Two monitors on 8 foot poles in place of 2 dealers that give rolls stats,
shows player's bets in total as well as the outcome of the dice roll.
- Your personal Betting Monitor also includes:
... Your Bankroll Credit to the penny
... Your Current Amount Bet
... Your Win Amount
... Different denomination chips you can touch to make bets with
... Your own "Off" buttons you can place on your bets
... Quick Bet Buttons such as Down, Across, Outside, Inside, Cash Out , Undo,
Off
... Most normal bets allowed including Big 6 and 8
... Animated dice roll result on screen after the fact
- Stats displayed on poled Monitors also includes:
... Last 10 rolls for shooter
... Longest roll by a shooter since table installed (48 at Bill's)
... Most Hardways by same Shooter in 1 roll (6)
... Most Craps by a Shooter in 1 roll (12)
- The table at Bill's Casino is closer to our descriptions above than the
prototype pictured on ShuffleMaster's website, but you can get the idea
and
remaining physical characteristics here:
http://www.shufflemaster.com/assets/pdf/product_sheets/Rapid_Craps.pdf
Advantages:
- No CHIPS in your landing zone.
- Did I just say "NO CHIPS" in your landing zone?
- No Late Bets (timed touch-screen monitors control bets).
- Perfect computerized payouts assuming the Stickman inputs correct roll of dice.
- $3 dollar table that pays truer odds on Place Bets than most casinos -- a
$3.00 Place Bet on the 8 will credit your account $3.50.
- Betting Monitor has a "Down" button to turn Off your bets or Take "Down"
your bets instantly without the annoying and disruptive "Bets Off"
being loudly
echoed on the table.
Disadvantages:
- Nearly 16.5 inch width of double rails protecting the monitor makes it hard
to make a shot launched from the table surface unless you have
arms of
an orangutan.
- Max $300. on Place Bets (regular Strip odds 3x4x5x).
- No Hop Bets.
- No Hi-Lo Bets.
- No Fire Bet.
- I saw people making Lay bets by accident when they were actually trying to
Place the number by touch.
- People stay longer compare to a traditional game. The chairs are very comfortable and
game is user friendly.
- Buy-ins during the middle of a roll still occur.
- Very unfortunate that the software on this program does not tally stats
properly... if an easy 6 was rolled, the Hard 6 counter would increase.
I recommend an underhand shot (using hardways on a 5/2 axis) using the
inside rail as a guide for your arm to swing along... but to each his own. I
shot from SR1 - a different feeling as I was the only one standing and
everyone else was sitting... New market for a sit down toss Beau?
Although this game was introduced in late 2006, this is the first time I have
seen it in a casino. Evidently, a bean counter's answer to the economic
woes with two less dealers and definitely no grumpy boxman from New Jersey.
Our
craps and instructors are dedicated teachers
of the game!
They are the Dice Busters
Join Them in Las Vegas!
June 26th, 2010