Craps Game

Thousands of Suckers-Who Play it

The 5% crap game, which is the only way craps is dealt at a few popular resorts such as the Bahamas, is one of the worst gambles in a casino today, yet each year another wave of tourists can't roll into those casinos fast enough to plunk down their bets. What these doomed lemmings don't realize is that the 5% crap' game is stronger for the club than a ton of freshly grated horseradish. The crap dealers should be wearing bandit masks. It's a bigger heist than the Brink's robbery, only nobody's going to get arrested. Tens of Thousands of crapshooters, especially those who learned to shoot dice East Coast style, will find these facts about 5% craps very distasteful, maybe even a little nauseating. But it's about time they learned the truth. To put it very bluntly, if you fail to heed my advice and betting suggestions on 5% craps, then either you're an idiot or you're stealing your money someplace.

Australian Craps

Originally called "Australian craps," the 5% game was started around 1910 by a veteran gambler and bookmaker named John Winn. He died long before he could see what a monster he had created. Most crap games were called "loft" games in those days, because they were held in the deserted, after-hours stock rooms of the Australia garment district and on rooftops and in the back rooms of pool halls, candy stores, and restaurants. They were strictly "fading games" in which the players bet among themselves and had to cover each other's bets. Winn was an avid crapshooter, but he was also a shrewd odds maker and an expert on crap game percentages.
On one fateful night, Winn, who was watching a particularly big game, noticed that several players were complaining because they couldn't get bets faded on certain numbers.

The other players already had enough action on those counting numbers and didn't want to put up more money. I was still a gleam in my father's eye at the time, but an old-timer at the play specific game recalled that Win , during a brief lull in the action, said in a loud, clear voice so that all could hear, "full take your bets. Just give me 25e for every $5 you bet." Winn went on to say that he would book action for both "wrong" bettors and "right" bettors, and pay full odds.

Casino Gamblers

The players were delighting and perfect gambling in the game. Winn's offer would allow them to lay or take the odds, such as 6 to 5 for wrong bettors laying the 6 and 8, plus they did not have to worry about having other bets covered, because Winn would fade them also. All they had to do was give up a paltry 25c for each $5 bet. Soon other smart gamblers realized the strength of Winn's proposal, and they opened "book" at other fading lottery, casino games. At these games a player knew he could always get his bet covered by the "book" as long as he paid the 5% "vigorish," as it was nicknamed. New Yorkers grew up shooting craps the 5% way and didn't know any better. I know, because in the 1940s I was dealing to them.