Before you learn how to play craps and start to play, you need to know the landscape. You play craps on a long, narrow, felt-covered table (see Figure 8-2) that has a foot-high ridge running all the way around, making it the perfect mini-arena for tossing dice - or racing hamsters. The standard craps table is large in order to accommodate up to 14 players at a time. Craps is a stand-up game - no chairs for you or the other players. At the top of the ridge is the rail with two grooves (the rail rack) perfectly sized to hold casino chips. But make sure you keep your drinks, purse, cigarettes, and everything else off the rail. A built-in shelf at your knees keeps your personal items safely out of the way of the game.
Going on a dice dig
Dice have been around since the dawn of recorded history. Many Roman emperors were hooked on dice games. Caligula was a notorious cheater-but who was going to argue with a sadistic despot who forced his enemies to commit suicide?
Archaeologists have unearthed loaded dice in Pompeii and ancient India, as well as limestone dice dating from 600 B.C. in Egypt. Another early version of dice was carved from the box-shaped knuckle bones of pigs, which explains why people sometimes refer to both dice and dominoes as bones. As popular as they were for gambling games, dice were also used as tools in rituals to predict the future.
