I'll start off this months's gamin' session by extending to one and all of you my thanks for your gracious response to our article. One reader's glaring email, however, complained that my article was too short! I'll try to rectify that this month with a new, longer format.

Your many email requests for anecdotes of my earlier years in Las Vegas and Reno threw me into a time warp and forced me to reminisce upon my earlier years in the gaming industry. Those mind jostling memories took me back to when I first started dealing, in the early sixties, when Las Vegas was still struggling to hang onto its glitz and glory of the roaring fifties, the time of free, star studded hotel reviews.

It was also the time when my feet first hit the casino floor and I was faced with the reality of learning how to take in losing bets, (I think I lost a few from the felt to the box) and how to pay off winning bets fast and graciously, in that order. My memory is a bit fuzzy about those beginning times but I do remember vividly how consuming my job was and what total concentration it required of me. Some nights I would leave the table with my head reeling from numbers and payoffs dancing around in my head. I would have to call home for someone to pick me up least I forget my way there.

But the worst memories that plague me of those beginning days is my embarrassments in how I used to relate to my players. One that stands out was the time I prodded a shooter across the table. "Sir, you will have to stand up to the table to shoot the dice." His reply still echoes in my ears! "I wish that I could."

He was confined to a wheelchair! To me, walking under the casino carpet was not low enough to punish me for my oversight. He was my first lesson in learning what type of people gamble. All kinds do, from blind cane carriers to those in motorized gurneys, from the healthy to the near dying. For the time people are gambling, they are euphoric.

We are now at the time to uncover the crap table and open the game.

I see in my mail box two very interesting questions. The first one up is from Betty M, Phoenix, Arizona. She asks, "What is the difference between 'Bank Craps' and 'Open Craps'? When I go to Las Vegas, which one am I playing?"

Betty, I've not been asked that question too many times. All casinos, in all our states and on our Indian reservations operate on the Bank Craps System. They all have a central bank or cashier's cage, which sponsor the bankrolls for the games within their respective casinos. The Open Craps Game generally involves two or more people playing for money, or anything else of value. Usually played on a blanket, or on the side of a building, or in a room betting on the outcome of the dice. Thus it's called Open Craps, without the rules of gaming regulations and restrictions of where to play. In short, Open Craps is illegal in our country.

The style of Open Craps brings me to the second email question, which is from Jessie L, of Los Angeles. He writes, "I have often heard the phrase, 'Fade the shooter. I can't get an explanation that makes any sense to me. Why do bettors do that?"

Jessie, in an open type of crap game, most people get confused with this type of betting. The person with the dice, the shooter, states that he wants to risk a hundred dollars. So, before he shoots, he states his intentions and says, "Shooting a hundred!" meaning that he wants to bet that he makes a pass or will win his roll. Those players who think that he won't make a pass will speak up. If they match his hundred they will say, "You're faded!" Some, in posher environments, say, "You have a bet." Others who don't want to cover, or fade, his whole bet will say, "You're faded for fifty, or eighty, or..." Sometimes the shooter will try to encourage others to make up the balances or go ahead and just shoot the shortages.

Thank you Betty M. and Jessie L. for your questions. I look forward to our next month's session. For now, the cover is over the crap table and the game is closed.

GAMIN' N' GAMBLIN' ETIQUETTE:
People! It's bad manners to talk back to your teacher, the police, your mama and your crap dealer.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Q & A box is open. Send your questions to "Ask Ha3ry" Contact him on site; http://www.4pointspress.com or direct your email to the Editor.