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Loaded Dice

There are many elaborate schemes to get crooked dice (often referred to as “loaded dice”) into the action in a game of craps. Most often a dice mechanic will use expert slight of hand to switch the good dice for the loaded dice. The dice can be altered in many ways - all designed to appear like normal dice, but behave very differently.

“Percentage dice” are dice that are altered in such as was as to result in certain numbers appearing more often than others. These dice, once in a game, are usually left there. Some are fixed to favor point numbers and some are fixed to favor the number seven.

Percentage dice are most commonly altered by making a change to the shape of the dice so that they are no longer perfect cubes. One form of this alteration is called “flats”. These dice have been shaved down on one or two sides and look more like a brick than a cube. Removing as little as 1/500 of an inch, can result in an increase in the player’s advantage. The more of the die that is removed, the faster a player will win. The most common form of flats is the Six-Ace. When the one and six sides are shaved down, they will appear more often than normal. When using these dice players will be betting on the point numbers to lose.

“Flat passers” are dice that have the one and six sides reduce on one die and the three and four sides reduce on the other die. This will cause the point numbers to appear more often.

Dice that have been reduced on non-opposite sides are called two-way flats. When the six and three sides are reduced the six-one and three-four sides have a greater area the number 6, 1, 3 and 4 are more likely to result. If a pair of dice are reduced in the same way, seven is the likely result. This is called “fast sevens or four way sevens”.

Some dice are altered by adding a slight bevel to the shape. These dice tend to roll more on the rounded sides and come to rest more often on the flat sides.

Dice may also be altered by cutting the edges of the dice. Not all the edges are cut at the standard 45 degree angle. Some may be cut at a 60 degree angle. This results in a larger area on some sides of the dice than others. The dice will then tend to settle on those sides.

Loaded dice are dice that have been altered on the inside. Loaded dice may appear to have a perfect cube shape, but weights hidden on the inside will make the dice come to rest on that side more often.

Many casinos use transparent dice as a way to thwart crooked dice. But this does not offer 100% protection. Transparent dice can have their recessed spots drilled a bit deeper and metal slugs are inserted to give more weight to a particular side. To make this even harder to detect, the other holes are also drilled a bit deeper, but filled with paint. Throwing the dice against a blackboard may help detect this type of crooked dice, but it won’t protect you from loaded or shaped dice.

Dice with flush spots are also not immune to crooked techniques. Their spots are recessed, but only slightly at 1 7/1000 of an inch. These dice are often altered as electric dice. Electric dice have steel slugs inserted into the recessed spots and are controlled with an electromagnetic device hidden under the table. You can detect magnetic dice with a magnetic. Otherwise, they look and feel like honest dice.

a pair of "tops and bottoms" dice

Professional craps cheats use what is called “tops and bottoms”. Because players can’t see more than three sides of a die at once, some numbers may be missing and others repeated. These dice bring up the right numbers every time. These dice usually have only three different numbers, with the same number repeated on the opposite side. Since no one can be in two places at the same time, no one can tell the dice has only three different numbers on it, rather than two. These dice are easily spotted with the simplest inspection, so they must enter and exit a game quickly.

I advise you not to try using crooked dice at a real casino. If they and you are detected the casino may give you a most unpleasant time about it. If you are lucky, you’ll just be asked to leave!