If you’ve ever watched a TV show depicting ghetto life, or a film that portrays people living in American slums, there’s a good chance you’ll have seen some characters “shooting dice”, or playing street craps.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, check this out:

So, how does this game work, if there’s no table and no casino to play against? You know, you do need someone to pay everyone out, or, at the very least, take care of the money, right?

Well, let’s start with the name. Street craps is so-called because of where it is played, obviously. It started out being played in back alleys and on the streets of America. Yes, it can be played anywhere, but because it was generally people you wouldn’t want in your company generally playing the game, you really wouldn’t want them in your house, so it was played in the street where reasonably large groups of people could get together. The other thing was, it’s a bit of a grey area in the law, so I would never condone playing it. I would suggest that if you want to play craps, you head to your nearest casino, or even better, go to Bovada.

But now we’ve established the name, let me explain the way it differs to Bank Craps. Remember, there’s no bank to speak of and there’s no table, so all that players can really bet on is the pass and don’t pass. It keeps things simple and avoids and confusion. Since it’s a game played on the streets, it has to be kept relatively simple. The game plays exactly the same as craps, with a come out rolls, pass and don’t pass.

So, all that’s left is down to wagers. Since there is no bank to speak of, it’s the other players in the game that will pay out bets. Once the shooter has decided whether they want to bet on pass or don’t pass, he has to announce how much he wants to wager. Let’s say, in this example, I want to wager $100 on a pass bet. Now, clockwise from me, each players get the chance to cover either all of my bet of part of my bet. Once the $100 has been covered, or every player has had the chance to cover some of the bet, players can bet amongst themselves on whatever they want, as long as they know the odds. However, it’s commonplace just for it to be more pass or don’t pass bets. After that, we’re ready to go and we’re back to playing craps, albeit without the table. However, the pass and don’t pass bets are generally just laid at even money to keep things simple.

If you don’t know the rules of craps, check out our article here on how to play craps.

There you have it: there’s not much of a difference between Bank Craps played in a casino and street craps played on street corners throughout the world, other than a reduced amount of betting opportunities, lack of a table and the uncertain nature of whether the game is going to be stopped by the authorities.

Again, I wouldn’t recommend you actually set up your own game on your street corner. Instead, you need to head to Bovada to play safely and without fear of not getting paid.

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