Dice Games: Hazard, Chuck-a-luck, and Big Six

As far as casino play is concerned, craps is the "only" dice game. This is because so many bets are possible, and the game, at its best, is so fast and complex that no other games are needed.

There is also a casino game called hazard (not the same game as English nobles used to play in their gaming rooms), plus chuck-a-luck, and Big Six, a dice game without dice.

Hazard was played by a group of payers around a table, just as in craps. In casino play there would be a croupier, though he had less to do than the croupier at a modern casino.

The shooter would bet, and the other players would follow, betting the same amount as the shooter if they wanted to bet at all. As the dice were rolled, the shooter would call out a number between 5 and 9, called the "main".

If that number hit, the shooter won. If they rolled crabs, 2, or 3, they lost. If the number was 4, 10, 11, or 12, that became the shooter's chance (what craps players would call the shooter's 'point'). To win, the shooter had to get the chance again before their main.

It's easy to see how craps evolved from this simpler game, even borrowing the name snake-eyes, or three, both of which are terms for crapping out. As for the other dice games still played in casinos today, they bear little real relationship to the royal line of hazard and craps.

For one thing, games like chuck-a-luck, and the latter-day hazard, don't allow the bettor to roll his or her own dice.

Instead, the dice are placed in a cage, or container shaped like an egg-timer. The layout for chuck-a-luck shows the numbers 1 through 6. These are the numbers on which bettors may wager.

The dice (three of them) are shaken in their cage and the cage is set down. If a player's number turns up on one die, they are paid off at 2 to 1, and if their number is on all three dice, the payoff is 3 to 1.

The catch is that only one player may bet on each number. If three 4s come up, for instance, the player who bet on 4 gets $3 for every $1 bet, the other players get nothing, and the house keeps $2 out of $6, (an edge of 33 percent).

At this rate, chuck-a-luck could make a lot of money for the house if it were more popular. As it is, it makes a moderate amount, which is enough to justify its existence in the eyes of the management.

In the game Big Six, there are no dice at all, only pictures of dice configurations on a big wheel. You bet on a number, the same as in chuck-a-luck, and the croupier spins the wheel.

If your number shows on the wheel when it stops, your payoff is the same as in a chuck-a-luck game. The house edge is even worse in Big Six than in chuck-a-luck, because the wheel doesn't show all the possible combinations of three dice.

Needless to say, the ones that are shown tend to favor the house. Big-Six wheels differ from house-to-house, but don't bother spending much time checking them out.

They aren't manufactured to give the player a break. One advantage of both Big Six and chuck-a-luck is that they are simple and easy to understand, thereby appealing to novice gamblers, who are confused by fast-moving games like craps, and don't have the kind of bankroll needed for baccarat.

If you're tempted to play one of the lesser dice games for reasons like this, stick to slot machines near the casino door. Chances are they'll take only about eight percent, which makes them far better bets than the carnival-type dice games.