Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Computerized Craps hits the Las Vegas Strip ...


Computerized Craps is on the Las Vegas Strip -- Rapid Craps has been installed at Bill's (owned by Harrah's).
Saturday night and we are taking a short cut thru Bill's on our way to Caesar's when we glance over to see a new craps table near the front door that replaced the old Fire Bet table ..... This craps table has a new layout and monitors -- YES, I said monitors for making bets -- NO CHIPS in your landing zone !!! ;D

Stats:
- roughly 13 foot inside diameter length wise
- "widest" craps table I have ever seen -- although it is near standard width, it looks wider due to the lack of chip stacks and a dealer (also has mirrors on both sides of the table)
- 14 monitors around the table all with very comfortable chairs
- Monitor has roughly inside dimensions of 8.5 inches wide x 6.5 inches high, slanted at about a 25 degree angle
- Monitors' betting software has similar characteristics to ShuffleMaster's Rapid Roulette (touch screen and timer controlled)
- 1 Dealer (Stick) with a Pit Boss (Supervising roaming Box) - Stick can be on either side of the table but is usually near the
- live dice (red clear unbalanced dice on a Saturday night, of course)
- throw your buy-in on the table and the Stick will enter the amount into your balance on your monitor
- Jonah describes the surface as a hard satin microfibre (I concur)
- 7 rows of hard pyramids
- no inverted roof at the top of the rubbers (inside of rail is nearly flush to the pyramid slab)
- 1 On-Off puck in center of table controlled by Stick
- Only chips on table are in the table bank and only used to Color-up exiting players after they touch the Color-up button on their monitor
- 2 monitors on 8 foot poles in place of 2 dealers that give rolls stats, shows player's bets in total as well as the outcome of the dice roll

- Your personal Betting Monitor also includes:
... Your Bankroll Credit to the penny
... Your Current Amount Bet
... Your Win Amount
... different denomination chips you can touch to make bets with
... your own "Off" buttons you can place on your bets
... Quick Bet Buttons such as Down, Across, Outside, Inside, Cash Out , Undo, Off
... Most normal bets allowed including Big 6 and 8
... animated dice roll result on screen after the fact

- Stats displayed on poled Monitors also includes:
... Last 10 rolls for shooter
... Longest roll by a shooter since table installed (48 at Bill's the first weekend, then a 54 the next week)
... Most Hardways by same Shooter in 1 roll (6)
... Most Craps by a Shooter in 1 roll (12)
... Number of Rolls since last Hardways and Horn numbers

- the table at Bill's Casino is closer to our descriptions above than the prototype pictured on ShuffleMaster's website, but you can get the idea and remaining physical characteristics here:
http://www.shufflemaster.com/assets/pdf/product_sheets/Rapid_Craps.pdf

Advantages:
- NO CHIPS in your landing zone
- did I say NO CHIPS in your landing zone
- No LATE BETS (timed touchscreen monitors control bets)
- perfect computerized payouts assuming Stick inputs correct roll of dice
- $3 dollar table that pays truer odds on Place Bets than most casinos -- a $3.00 Place Bet on the 8 will credit your account $3.50 -- although after the first week, the table is now mostly $5. limits
- Betting Monitor has a "Down" button to turn Off your bets or Take "Down" your bets instantly without the annoying and disruptive "Bets Off" being loudly echoed on the table

Disadvantages:
- nearly 16 inch width of double rails protecting the monitor makes it hard to do a shot launching from the table surface unless you are as tall as Jerry Patterson,
- Max $300. on Place Bets (regular Strip Odds 3x4x5x)
- No Hop Bets
- No Hi-Lo Bets
- No Fire Bet
- I saw people making Lay bets by accident when they were actually trying to Place the number by touch
- people stay longer than a regular game -- chairs are too comfortable and game is user friendly
- Buy-ins during the middle of a roll still occur
- very unfortunate that the software on this program does not tally stats properly .... if an easy 6 was rolled, the Hard 6 counter would increase :-/

..... If you are not able to position yourself on the table like the "lady" in the above picture,  I would recommend an underhand shot (using hardways on a 5/2 axis) using the inside rail as a guide for your arm to swing along .... but to each his own

I shot from SR1 -- different feeling as you are the only one standing and everyone else is sitting ... new market for a sit down toss ??

Even though this game was introduced in late 2006, this is the first I have seen in a casino -- evidently a beancounter's answer to the economic woes -- 2 less dealers and definitely no rigid Box 
(Originally posted by HarleyHorn on February 21, 2010) 



Rapid Craps Photos courtesy of Jonah -

 

1 comment:

  1. I had lots of fun playing at this Rapid Craps table. It was simple to understand and with the use of the monitor your betting ( wins and losses) private. I shot SR1 during my first run at the table and it is quite difficult setting over the railing. All and all I enjoyed Very much being in control of all my bets and rolling without much interference on the table : ) I would've preffered swing this system rolled to other venues instead of the fully electronic table craps popping up across the country.

    ReplyDelete