Craps table etiquette: how not to look like a tourist

Craps has more unwritten rules than any other casino game, and the crew enforces them fast. None of them are hard. Here is everything you need to walk up to a live table, buy in, bet, shoot, and tip without a single sideways look.

Buying in

Find an open spot at the rail and wait for the dice to land. Then put your cash on the felt, not in the dealer's hand. Dealers are not allowed to take anything directly from a player; cameras need to see every dollar that comes across the table. Say “change only” or “buy-in” so nobody thinks you're placing a bet. The dealer counts it, the boxman (the seated supervisor who guards the chips and cash) checks it, and a stack of chips slides back to you.

Drop the cash between rolls, never while the shooter is winding up. The dealer will give you a sensible mix of chips; if you need smaller ones later, set a $25 chip down and say “break this down.”

Where to stand and where your chips live

The wooden ledge in front of you with grooves cut into it is the rail. Your chips go there, and only there. Never leave chips lying loose on the felt, because anything on the felt looks like a bet. Keep your rail tidy so you can see at a glance how much you have, and keep an eye on it; a crowded table is not the place to be careless with $500 in chips.

Spots at the ends of the table are easiest for beginners: you're next to a dealer who can reach your bets, and you can watch how they handle everyone else's first. The spots nearest the stickman (the person in the middle with the long stick who moves the dice and runs the center bets) are where the action moves fastest. Drinks go in the cup holders under the rail, never on the felt.

Bets you touch and bets you don't

This is where most new players get corrected. The layout splits into two territories.

Self-service bets are the ones directly in front of you: the pass line, the odds behind it, the don't pass, the come, the don't come, and the field. You put these chips down yourself and pick your winnings up yourself. When the dealer pays your pass line, they set the winnings next to your original bet; if you don't pick them up, they stay in action on the next roll.

Dealer-handled bets are everything in the point boxes and the center of the table: place bets, buy and lay bets, hardways, and every proposition bet. You never reach into those areas. Instead, drop your chips on the felt in front of you (the area just inside the pass line is the usual spot, called the come area or “the apron”) and tell the dealer what you want. Place bets go to your dealer. Hardways and one-roll props are called to the stickman, who books them in the center.

How to call a bet

Amount first, then the bet. “Six dollars, place the eight.” “Ten dollars, buy the four.” “Twelve dollars, six and eight.” If you're new, keep it short and let the dealer confirm; they will repeat it back so the boxman hears it.

Don't toss chips into the center yourself. A $1 chip lobbed at the hardways box can land on the wrong spot, bounce into the dice, or knock someone else's bet over. Set it down in front of you and say the words. The stickman will slide it into place.

Also know that not every bet can be taken down. Once a point is set, a pass line or come bet is locked in. Place bets, odds, and props can be removed any time the dice aren't in the air.

Hands high

The one rule everybody learns the hard way. When the stickman pushes the dice to the shooter, the dice are “out.” From that moment until they land, nothing of yours crosses the rail. Not a hand placing a late bet, not a drink, not an elbow. If a die hits your hand and shows a 7, you will be blamed by everyone at the table, and if the dice leave the table you'll hear “same dice!” from half a dozen superstitious strangers.

Get your bets in early, right after the previous roll is paid. If you've missed the window, wait one roll. The stickman will often say “hands high” or “watch your hands” as a courtesy warning. At PointPuck's multiplayer tables the equivalent is the shooter's knock: when the shooter knocks to send the dice, betting closes for that roll, exactly as it would when the stickman calls “dice are out.” If your bet didn't land before the knock, it waits for the next roll.

Shooting the dice

Every player gets a turn as shooter, moving clockwise around the table. You can pass by waving the dice off; nobody minds. If you shoot, you must have a bet on the pass line or don't pass. The stickman offers you five dice; pick two with one hand.

Then the rules that matter:

• One hand only. Once you pick the dice up, they stay in that hand. Never switch hands, never cup them in both, and never take them below the rail or out of the crew's sight. This is a cheating-prevention rule and the boxman takes it seriously.
• Hit the back wall. Both dice must travel to the far end and bounce off the pyramid-textured rubber wall. That wall exists to randomize the throw. A soft lob that dies short will get a warning; repeated short rolls get a “no roll” call or worse.
• Don't slide them. Toss, don't push. A slide that keeps a die's face up is treated as an attempt to control the result.
• Keep it moving. Set the dice if you like, but a shooter who takes twenty seconds arranging them before every throw will get hurried along.

Whether any of that ceremony changes the outcome is a separate question, and the honest answer is in craps myths that cost people money.

The word you don't say

Nobody says “seven” at a craps table once a point is set. The crew calls it “seven out, line away” when it happens; players just don't say it at all. If you need to talk about the any seven bet, call it “big red.” Is this rational? No. Dice don't have ears. But the whole table is betting against the 7, and saying it out loud reads as either bad luck or bad manners, depending on who's standing next to you. It costs nothing to skip the word.

Related courtesy: if you're on the don't side, keep quiet when the shooter sevens out. You're allowed to win; you're not allowed to cheer about it.

Tipping the crew

Dealers are paid mostly in tips, and craps has a custom of tipping with bets rather than cash. Put a chip next to your own bet and say “for the boys” or “for the crew.” A common version is a two-way bet: “two-way hard eight” means $1 for you and $1 for the dealers on the hard 8. If it hits, they get $9 and you get $9. Crews also like a dealer bet on the pass line during a good hand: “dollar on the line for the boys.”

How much is up to you. A dollar or two now and then is normal at a $10 table, and nobody keeps score. Tipping with a good bet (the pass line) rather than a prop is a small kindness, since the crew faces the same house edge you do.

Small things that mark a regular

• Know your amounts before you speak. Place the 6 and 8 in $6 units, the others in $5 units, so payouts come out whole.
• Ask questions between hands, not mid-roll. Better yet, read the guide first.
• Count your payout when it lands. Mistakes happen both directions.
• If you step away, tell the dealer your bets are “off” or take them down.

All of it can be practiced before you stand at a real rail. The spots, the calls, and the knock work the same way on a free table, with only play money at stake.