Minding Mr. Manners at a craps table

When you’re playing craps, most of the etiquette-related manners focus on the dice, so pay attention to where the dice are at all times. When the stickman yells, “Dice are out!” the shooter has permission to roll the dice. This is your signal to get your hands up and out of the way (assuming you’re not the shooter).
The following are some of the simple do’s and don’ts of craps etiquette:

Keep drinks away from the rail. And definitely don’t hold your drink over the rail. Craps is a fist-pumping, back-slapping, wild game, so you’re bound to get jostled and splash your whiskey on the felt.

Don’t touch the numbers. Craps dealers keep a lockdown on parts of the layout. Players are only allowed to place chips on the bets right in front of them: the pass-line and don’t-pass bets, plus the come, don’t-come, field, and Big 6/8. The unspoken demarcation line is the come box; any bet in the numbered squares requires a dealer’s assistance. The same is true for all bets in the middle area; the stickman places those bets for all players. (Check out “Avoiding ‘Sucker’ Bets,” later in this post, for more info about these bets.)

Handle the dice with one hand only. When your turn comes, never use two hands - and keep the dice where the crew can see them. Casinos are justifiably obsessed with cheaters who might sneak crooked dice into the game, so these rules limit those chances of cheating.

Do your best to toss a valid throw. Toss the dice so they hit the far wall of the table and bounce off. This move ensures a random outcome and is considered a valid throw. Also, don’t toss the dice too high or too soft, and keep the arc lower than the tallest player at the table.

Leave the fancy pitches to baseball. Don’t fling the dice like a hotshot grounder to third - you’re likely to leave piles of rubble in your wake and generate a dirty look from the boxman. As a dealer once said of dice, “They’re small, light, and not made of dynamite.”