It is my understanding that craps and non electronic roulette are not allowed in Indian casinos…yet black jack and slot machines are allowed.
why are they not allowed to have a full course casino?
Depends on where you are and what state is doing the regulating. The casinos in New Mexico (all Indian casinos except for the “racinos”-- horse track with slot machines) offer just about all games. They all have a poker room, blackjack, craps, roulette, and of course slots and video poker and most offer other various table games like Caribbean Stud, Three Card Poker, Pai-Gow Poker (generally the Fortune version), mini-baccarat, Let It Ride, Four Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’Em, and so on, depending on the exact casino, as well as bingo and keno. Each tries to have a unique game or other gimmick to get players. For instance, one offers single-zero roulette, so that’s where I’d go if I wanted to play roulette. Only one offers Ultimate Texas Hold’Em, while another one is the only one with Spanish 21. Some have better Fortune Pai-Gow paytables than others. One used to offer a really good single-deck blackjack game, but I think they got rid of it. And so on.
Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Connecticut, operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, offers both craps and roulette.
It all depends on the state, and how the rules for that state were written.
Here in California the rules were very explicit about disallowing “traditional” craps and roulette. And it has been interesting to see how the various casinos have come up with work-arounds to have a “craps like” game and a “roulette like” game (non-electronic). I don’t know the full history, but it smells like the Las Vegas lobby pushed hard to limit the casinos’ table games to Blackjack, Carribean stud, let it ride, etc… But the wording of how they described just how craps and roulette were to be disallowed left some loopholes that these indian casinos are now taking advantage of.
But I have seen, in New Mexico, that real craps is allowed. So it all depends on the state.
Harrahs Cherokee, in Cherokee NC, does not have “Real” craps or roulette. It has digital blackjack.
No cite, but I think the stipulation is that it remains a game of Skill, over luck.
All of the slots have stop buttons to stop the reels mid spin.
Related, Victoryland Alabama has Slots that are manufactured to actually play out bingo. In this way, you play a slots interface, and its mathmatically worked out to call up a certain bingo number, to match, or not match your given card.
Its all Legal.
Washington state tribal casinos have full gaming, including craps and roulette. The slots are very different than 'Vegas in that they are required to have a stop button on the tumblers. Also, there is no money actually exchanged at the tables or machines. You have to buy tickets specific to each game.
I’m off to the Pala Casino next week, near Temecula. I never play table games but I can take a look and see if they have craps or roulette. I think Pauma casino down the road may have craps, but only one day a week or some such thing.
California has some screwed up gaming laws (versus Indian casinos having screwed up rules). For example, some casinos (not all) provide a form of “card craps.”
From this site :
As for roulette — I have played roulette (the standard version) in a casino in California. I don’t think there are any restrictions there.
For my part, the major difference between Indian casinos and Vegas casinos is that Vegas casinos are more tightly regulated.
As does Mohegan Sun in Connecticut too. Some of you may say… "What a casino in Connecticut"…
**Well it should be mentioned that Foxwoods as previously linked to is the single largest casino on earth. **
Several years ago, I was Art Director for a company which made arcade poker/gambling machines for several reservations. One thing I was suprised to learn is that they were basically lottery games- before you even put your money in, it was already decided whether you were going to win or not (as opposed to normal gambling, in which your skill and luck determine the outcome after you pay for the game). This is an important distinction- these games were designed for states that allowed lotteries, but not any other form of gambling.
That may be what you’re seeing- if the state allows lotteries, but not traditional gambling, that may be why you’re not finding the traditional “Vegas” games.
When I have played at Barrona (outside San Diego) They had a regular rulette wheel but did not choose the number based only on that wheel. They had a deack of cards with all the number 1 to 35 plus 0 and 00. Each spin the deck was suffeled and 3 cards were drawn. Which of the three cards was used to get the final number depended on the spin of the wheel. This seemed realy lame to me. Either outlaw this sort of silliness or make it legal to run normal roulette.
Pala, Pauma, Harrah’s, and Pechanga all have their own versions of craps. I think Pala and Harrah’s are the only ones with some form of (non-electronic) roulette.
Pala and Harrah’s craps is more “crap like” in that there are dice involved, and there is more of a sense of a “shooter” (goes around the table). But Pauma and Pechanga are less like real craps.
Morongo, over by Palm Springs, has a version of craps, but it’s very similar to Pechanga (two card shoes).
Barona also has a very similar version of their craps.
Viejas does not have a version of craps. And though its been a while, I don’t believe Sycuan has a version either. Oh, and Valley View also doesn’t have a version of craps.
I’ve seen Stop buttons on most of the newer video machines in Reno, NV – I assumed it was just to give the player the illusion of control (when in actuality, your results have been pre-determined the nanosecond you pressed the button).
What was the rationale over requiring Stop buttons on slots in Indian casinos?
It makes it a game of skill, not of chance. At least in theory, I don’t know how they actually work, but that’s how they either deal with or get around the law.
That’s just adorable, how the political mind works.
A modern slot machine has a microprocessor with a random number generator in it. When you press the button it determines what you win, within microseconds; then it lines up the reels accordingly. But the reel spinning is just for show – it matters not at all whether you stop them or not. Your fate was sealed the instant you pressed the button.
I was at Pala a few days ago, and they do indeed have at least two craps tables that appear to be the real thing.
That’s all. I just looked; I never play that game.
I was at an indian casino in Oklahoma last weekend. They had blackjack tables, but you had to pay 50 cents a hand to play.
Those machines are known as “tribal lottery systems”, if we’re thinking of the same ones, and the stop button doesn’t really do anything. You have to press a button twice to use them: press once and you “enroll”, your machine gets a “ticket” from some central computer that tells it how much you won. Press again and you see some reels spinning on the screen, but it’s all for show, and nothing you do has any effect on your winnings other than the number of lines you play and the amount you choose to bet. The stop button just skips the animation and shows your results immediately.
At Northern Quest, at least, you certainly can exchange money at the tables. The slot machines take and dispense tickets, but you can buy chips at the table with cash, which are the same chips used at every other table. The table dealers also pay winnings under $1 in coins, e.g. a winning $10 bet in pai gow pays $9.50 after the 5% commission is taken out, so you get a $5 chip, four $1 chips, and two quarters - unless you already have two quarters to pay the commission out of your own stack.
What is the official political reason California lawmakers would give why all games found in Las Vegas are not allowed in most if not all of Indian land casinos in California?
I remember playing machines like these, but I don’t remember where. You put your money in the slot machine which was loaded with “tickets.” The machine reads the ticket, spins the reels and spits out a ticket. I don’t remember if it only spit out winning tickets or all tickets. Very strange!