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 player who's current go it is, is called the shooter. The shooter wins if he rolls a 7 or 11 and this is entitled 'Natural' and he loses if he rolls a 2, 3 or a 12. This is known as 'craps' and it is where the name gets its name from. Rolling any of the remaining numbers (4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10) is known as the 'point'. If the shooter achieves point on his first roll, he must roll again, if he achieves point again, then rolls again and rolls a 7 then he wins. If a 7 is rolled after the first point then the shooter loses and the dice are passed on to the next person. The next person will then become the shooter.