Greatest Gambling Cheats Part 8: The Craps Past-Post.

The Craps Past Post

This is a move that involves making a switch following a win on a roll at the craps table and is carried-out by a two man team. The team consists of a ‘mechanic’- the person who is responsible for setting up the scam- and a ‘claimer’- the person who is responsible for claiming the winning bet.

 

The Claimer positions himself behind the mechanic at either ends of the craps table, ensuring that the target table is busy with many gamblers placing bets. The mechanic then makes a bet of $15 made up of three $5 chips, placing them on the pass line, meaning that they are betting with on the side of the shooter, rather than the casino.

 

In craps, when the shooter rolls a 7 or an 11 for the first roll, then he wins; the numbers 2, 3 and 12 are all losing bets; the remaining numbers, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, are all known as a ‘point’ if rolled, if a point is rolled then the point number must be rolled another time prior to a 7 being rolled if the pass-line bet is to be won. If a point has been rolled and a 7 comes out before the point is rolled again, all bets on the pass-line lose.

 

In this scam, at the point that the pass-line bet placed loses, the mechanic must then place the same bet for the following roll, once the dealer has swept the losing chips. Due to the fact that this is a two-man scam, the team are able to stay at the table following a loss.

 

However, if the bet is won, then the mechanic will surreptitiously switch two $500 chips into the stack, effectively removing two of the original $5 chips (the chips are returned following a loss in addition to the pay-out of the original bet). The way in which this part of the move is carried-out consists of the mechanic having concealed in his palm a stack of three chips with two $500 and one $5 chip, the $5 chip must be on the top so that the $500 chips are less obvious (the $5 is known here as a capper), he makes a direct swap with the three original $5 chips, rather than fiddling about trying to swap the two bottom chips around. This section of the move should only take a couple of seconds to complete.

 

Once the set-up has been successfully carried-out, the mechanic then switches places with the claimer; the claimer then places a stack of $500 chips into the players holding rack and begins to address the dealer, pretending that the bet has been miss-paid and that the bet was actually for $1005. Simultaneously, the claimer will reach out and touch the dealers hand as a way to surprise him, this part of the scam works to unsettle the dealer as the act of touching is largely unprecedented in casinos, and it is out of the normal remit of acceptable behaviour- although there are no rules against it usually.

 

Of key importance to this move is the fact that none of the casino employees responsible for that particular craps table will be aware of the claimer until the point that he is actually making a claim. The beauty in this comes from the fact that if the same individual were to place a $15 bet on the pass-line on consecutive losing rolls, then suddenly argue that they had been placing $1005 and try to claim for this, then they would be considered with a lot more suspicion than a new player placing their first bet. The fact that the claimer has placed a stack of $500 chips in the players rack will also add credibility to the fact that the claimer is a high-roller (meaning that they consistently place high-stakes bets).

 

A good past-posting scam team will be consistent in their approach to the scam, always using the same procedure. When the various roles of mechanic and claimer are determined, a good team will ensure that the minimal amount of pressure is placed on each individual member, and play to those people’s strengths. The claimers role would always be to claim the money, never to have any part in the set-up. A third person would be used as a look out, ensuring that they are constantly vigilant and aware of any changes in the way that the security team were making observations on the chosen craps table- this is the most vital role of the whole scam, the eyes and ears.

 

Another member of the team, known as the chip-bettor, would make sure that he was strategically placed in relation to the claimer, a position that is one step further away from the dealer. The chip-bettor would be responsible for placing an identical $15 wager on the pass-line next to the claimer’s stack, doing this helped the mechanic make the switch from a three $5chip stack to a two $500 and one $5 chip stack. Because the chips on the pass-line are originally of the same colour, this ensures that the dealer will not need to return to his rack in order to get another coloured chip to pay out the bet. This meant that the dealer had less time to dwell on the bets; they were straightforward and could be dealt with almost automatically, meaning that the dealer largely oversees the team members.

 

Once the dealer has paid-out the bet, this usually has around a 9/10 chance of happening, the claimer will then make what is known as a ‘bet-back’, this is done in order to eradicate the final traces of suspicion from the casino staff regarding the earlier move. A bet-back is a bet placed after the winning bet; in this case the claimer will bet $205, consisting of two $100 chips and one $5 chip, with the $5 chip acting as a capper. This makes it appear that the claimer has a natural foible as a gambler of placing small chips over larger chips.

 

Regardless of whether the bet-back was lost or won, the claimer would then leave the craps table and then proceed out of the casino, while the mechanic leaves also- but not in a way that makes it appear as if they are together. The only remaining team member is the security look-out person who would then observe the reaction of the casino to the scam, if there was no kerfuffle then the team would know that it could return at a later date and undertake the move again. This move can also be done with higher denomination chips with those individuals with the balls to do it.

 

 

The Past Post with Odds move in Craps:

 

There is another version of this trick with a larger return. As was stated above, if the craps shooter did not win the original roll with a 7 or 11, nor lose with a 2, 3 or 12, then a point would be obtained. Once a point has been established then anyone with a bet placed on the pass-line has the opportunity of placing a subsequent odds bet, this is just a bet that is valued at the same amount as the original bet and at which the odds are paid out at their true rate (as opposed to the casino adding to the odds in order to make a commission) in relation to the shooter rolling another 7 before the point is rolled again. In this trick, if a point is established then the mechanic places an additional bet of three $5 chips and places it behind the original three $5 chip bet on the pass-line; this latter bet is the odds bet. If the pass-line bet was then won, the pay-out was 1:1, however the odds-bet paid out at the true odds value; the only reason this bet is offered is as a courtesy from the casino in order to ensure the favour of its punters, and paid out at a greater percentage than 2:1.

 

Thus for example, if the point score was 4, then the statistical probability of rolling a 4 prior to a 7 being rolled is 2:1 against, this means that for a $15 bet, $30 would be paid-out for the odds-bet, but only $15 for the pass-line bet- even though they are both betting on the same outcome. If the point bet is won, then the mechanic will past-post both bets chip stacks, replacing two $15 bets with two $1005 bets. Again he has palmed the two stacks of set-up chips, one stack on top of the other in order to facilitate the move.

 

Occasionally a dealer will pay the bets in a bridge formation; this is the way that bets are often paid-out for a natural blackjack. The dealer will pay the chips that are paid-out at true odds as a ‘bridge’, meaning that they are placed over the stack of two chips, the stacks for the odds-bet and the pass-line bet. This can make it extremely difficult to carry-out the move and great manual dexterity is needed to carry it out efficiently. A good past-poster will be able to do this no problem, and when such a move is done successfully under a ‘bridge’ pay-out formation, it just adds enormously to the credibility of the scam.

 

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