Like - Bubble Craps
The most alluring act in all of gambling is shooting craps. This is obviously the result of the imagined cultural ideal of playing in some place like Monte Carlo in a tuxedo as a gorgeous, and perhaps even dangerous, woman in a long elegant dress blows on the dice before the shooter rolls anything except a seven. The reality of craps is severely less sexy. Often you’re at a table with a bunch of random people who are at varying levels of sobriety and only sort of know the rules while being pressured by the house to keep it moving. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a good time, it just often means seeing people lose a lot of money really quickly because craps can be a whirlwind, despite also being one of the games with the highest odds of beating the house. Enter bubble craps… Now, bubble craps is pretty much the same as regular craps with a few big differences. To start, it’s played on this weird machine table where all the bets happen on a screen, there’s no stickman, the dice are big, and they rumble around in a strange cylinder where, instead of being rolled, you shoot with a button. It’s a lovely mix of digital and analog gambling, especially when you’re winning. Of course, that goes for all gambling but here’s the thing… Winning feels easier on bubble craps. I have zero evidence to support that claim but it proved true for me and some friends this weekend in Reno. Of the five of us who played, we all came out ahead and one of us came out very ahead. Were there any femme fatales on our shoulders giving the dice a lucky blow? No.1 Did we spend way too long sitting hunched over a table riding the highs and lows while picking up various betting ticks and superstitions in an old, smoke-filled Reno casino cheering each other on as we made our run? You bet.
Incidentally, if you ever do play craps at a casino, just know that the table staff are going to get pissed at you if you do try to blow on the dice. Alas, that is just another instance of Hollywood lying to us.