I get a lot of questions from my readers and I like to answer them on the website. A game like craps can be overwhelming for a new player, so it’s important to ask questions and learn about the game. Casino games are my life and I’m always willing to help, so if you or anyone else has questions about playing craps, they’re welcome. There are no stupid questions when it comes to casino games.
This brings me to today’s question. This is a craps question that I honestly didn’t know how to answer. The dice are random, anything can happen to them. You can roll the same die 100 times and it might come up on the same number those 100 times, but the odds of it coming up will never change from roll to roll. Anything can go on any shot. No number has to come out. (Sorry Keno players, but that’s how it is.)
So today’s question comes from Larry, who wants to know a little more about the roll of the dice and the numbers that come up. I will do my best to reply.
Larry writes:
How many times must the data be rolled before it lands 2 or 12?
Although there is no set time, the odds of landing a 2 or 12 are 17-1. So, these probabilities suggest that once in every 18 rolls, a 2 or a 12 should come up. However, this is not always the case, as it can take much more or less time. You can never know.
Of course, there was a recent study on rolling the dice that showed that the dice were not truly random. Theoretical models and high speed, high definition videos have proven that the randomness of the dice is not what we think. A die rolled with 1 on top will have a slightly higher chance of landing on 1 than on any other value. Other factors include table friction, the effects of gravity, and the speed of the shot. A super computer could predict the roll of a die, but a human? Of course not.
You have no way of knowing these initial conditions and no way of predicting them. The amount of information you would need to predict with any regularity is high and the fact that you cannot have this data gives the appearance of being random and is virtually indistinguishable from truly random.
This is the kind of thing that science and technology allows us to know about games like craps and it’s interesting to know, but it doesn’t really give us any window. It’s just a curious fact.