No matter where you are in the world, you’re likely to find the same table games when you walk into a casino. With respect to local laws which ban certain games, there isn’t a lot of variation. In this article, we’ll review some of these universally popular games.
Casino Table Games
Walking into a casino, you’re likely to be greeted by a familiar scene. Centered in the casino will be an area in which table games are played. These most often include craps, roulette, poker, baccarat and blackjack. However, many casinos have cashed in on the popularity of poker and its variations, and have set aside special areas of the casino for this game. Poker, and all its variations such as Texas Hold ‘Em and Caribbean Stud, will be discussed in another article since it is such a large topic.
Surrounding this central table game area, you’ll find banks and rows of slot machines and video poker machines. Due to the large variety of these games, they’ll be discussed in separate articles. In this article, we’ll stick to table games.
An Introduction to Table Games:
Blackjack
Simple to play and hard to master, blackjack is extremely popular in casinos, and usually takes up a lot of floor space. The premise is simple: you want your cards to add up to twenty-one, or as close as possible, without going over that number. The simplicity is rather deceptive, however, and gamblers have been pouring thought and strategy into this game for years.
Craps
Craps is perhaps one of the most fun and exciting casino table games, because it fosters a sense of community among players. A player rolls a pair of dice, hoping for a seven. A seven will win the players’ bet. A two or a twelve are dreaded, because they automatically lose. If another number is rolled, the bet…and the game…continue. Players gathered around the table generally bet similarly, so they are usually hoping for the same outcome, hence the community feel of the game.
Baccarat
Baccarat is sometimes viewed as an elite game, due to its common depiction as such in movies. It is a slightly more complex game, but it’s easily learned. Simply, baccarat involves betting on the “banker” or the “player” winning, or betting on a tie. Of course, there is more to it than that. Different variations on the game exist, including those for high-stakes gamblers and those for beginners. Over time, a player moves up to the more complex and difficult variations.
Roulette
Extremely popular and simple, roulette means “little wheel” in French and involves a spinning wheel with numbers on it. A small ball is dropped onto the wheel as it spins, and bets are placed beforehand as to where the ball will land. You can bet on a specific number, or you can bet on red or black, the colors of the numbered slots.
As you can see, there is a great deal of variation, even within the subculture of casino table games. It’s not difficult to understand how a person can gamble regularly for their entire lives and never tire of the games.
When gambling, always remember to use moderation, and to have fun. There’s certainly a lot of fun to be had when you consider all the different games, their variations, and the individual nuances of each individual dealer and player!
