Some gamblers believe that you can recover your losses by doubling your bet every time you lose. This is known as the Martingale system. The idea is that when you win, the win will be big enough to cover your previous losses. There are two problems with this system: You may run out of money before you win. You can only double your bet so many times because of table limits, and so occasionally you will hit the table limit before winning – and this will be very expensive.

This is known as the cancellation system. Pick a series of numbers, say 1,2,3,4,5. Your first bet is the total of the two numbers on the end, or 6 units in this case. If you lose it, you cancel out the 1 and the 5, add the six to the end of the series and bet the 6 and the 2, for a total of eight units bet. Lose that one and you add the eight to the series, cancel the 2 and the six and bet a total of 11 (3+8) and so on. If you win, you proceed to the inside numbers until they are all cancelled out. Again, a loser, but an insidious one.

The game of craps is the most popular dice game in the United States at the moment there are a few different theories about its origin. Dice games can be traced back to the roman times with shaved pigs knuckles being used as the dice. Craps however was based on the game hazard, which was popular in the 17th and 18th century in England. The name craps is believed to have derived from the English crabs which was the name for the throw of aces or ace-deuce. The game moved over to the United States when the French moved to New Orleans and the French pronounced the game craps and in there version of the game the player throws against the house and not another player like the English version of the game. The game was very popular on the Mississippi river boats and it was a simplified version of modern day craps that was spread about the United States. There are two modern day versions of craps played today. Street craps has more in common with the riverboat game than Bank craps and it is so named as it can be played on the street. A shooter establishes a point, then tries to make that point. Bettors either bet with the shooter or against the shooter. Someone must cover the bet for the shooter in order for the game to progress. Bank craps is the form played in the casinos and has a more complicated form of betting with the house covering the bets.