"These cubes are improperly balanced."

Star Trek: TNG episode The Royale.

What a perfect of intersection of nedity, if you're into Star Trek and gambling. I've only come to appreciate it more as I've gotten older.

Post if you agree.

And yet so many...problems...with the episode. I'll have to pull up my notepad.

Hello all. I've never posted here before; I don't know that much about anything so please forgive my errors in advance.

As a geek who plays craps I really enjoyed the episode, but I didn't pay too much attention to the defective die aspect and I must give a warning: spoilers will come for those that haven't seen the episode and want to.

Okay, now that we have gotten beyond the mandatory warning.

I always wondered about something. If, as shown in that episode, everything in that alien-created casino repeats itself periodically, deterministically, then why bother "fixing" the dice? Just memorize the sequence of numbers and have at it! We'd all like to know the exact numbers in a session that would come up -- before they come up. Crooked dice would make no difference in such a case in terms of exploiting the information.

It does make an interesting arithmetic problem to figure out the optimum way to play when you know the future sequence of numbers. Of course, I suspect a real casino would shut things down pretty quickly in a situation where a player bet optimally knowing all the numbers that would come up in advance (I know that I would if I ran a casino).

Then again, perhaps this episode has the very first ever fictional portrayal of dice setting (by the way, I consider all portrayals of dice setting fictional).

I also enjoyed watching the craps scene in "Diamonds Are Forever" (the James Bond movie set in Las Vegas with Sean Connery). He seemed overly generous to the generously proportioned avaricious young lady. But then: I've seen some things at the craps tables in Las Vegas so I can't say I found it unrealistic.

I think that about wraps it up for craps as portrayed in any detail by Hollywood (at least that I can remember, but I don't get out very much).

Quote: Concinnity

Hello all. I've never posted here before; I don't know that much about anything so please forgive my errors in advance.

As a geek who plays craps I really enjoyed the episode, but I didn't pay too much attention to the defective die aspect and I must give a warning: spoilers will come for those that haven't seen the episode and want to.

Okay, now that we have gotten beyond the mandatory warning.

I always wondered about something. If, as shown in that episode, everything in that alien-created casino repeats itself periodically, deterministically, then why bother "fixing" the dice? Just memorize the sequence of numbers and have at it! We'd all like to know the exact numbers in a session that would come up -- before they come up. Crooked dice would make no difference in such a case in terms of exploiting the information.

It does make an interesting arithmetic problem to figure out the optimum way to play when you know the future sequence of numbers. Of course, I suspect a real casino would shut things down pretty quickly in a situation where a player bet optimally knowing all the numbers that would come up in advance (I know that I would if I ran a casino).

Then again, perhaps this episode has the very first ever fictional portrayal of dice setting (by the way, I consider all portrayals of dice setting fictional).

I also enjoyed watching the craps scene in "Diamonds Are Forever" (the James Bond movie set in Las Vegas with Sean Connery). He seemed overly generous to the generously proportioned avaricious young lady. But then: I've seen some things at the craps tables in Las Vegas so I can't say I found it unrealistic.

I think that about wraps it up for craps as portrayed in any detail by Hollywood (at least that I can remember, but I don't get out very much).

Welcome to the forum, Concinnity! You make a good point; there must be a loop in the feature somewhere. I suspect they wanted to wrap it up in one hour, and show how clever Commander Riker was, rather than waiting for the repeat. :) They would have preceded "Groundhog Day" in concept if they'd written it that way, I think (haven't verified the relative release dates).

As to Hollywood, here's a list of 10 movies featuring craps (in honor of National Dice Day, which seems to be December 4th; who knew?)

http://vitalvegas.com/ten-movies-featuring-craps-honor-national-dice-day/

Quote: beachbumbabs

As to Hollywood, here's a list of 10 movies featuring craps (in honor of National Dice Day, which seems to be December 4th; who knew?)

I always liked that Hard Eight movie but never quite understood it. How is it that a hit man who knows all the gambling tricks in Vegas makes a Hardways Bet?

Quote: AcesAndEights

And yet so many...problems...with the episode. I'll have to pull up my notepad.

Agreed, many problems with that episode, but I'd happily watch it again if it were on TV when I get home tonight!

Quote: Concinnity

Then again, perhaps this episode has the very first ever fictional portrayal of dice setting (by the way, I consider all portrayals of dice setting fictional).

Exactly. I always wondered about that scene. Was Data essentially saying that the dice were loaded, and he was re-configuring them in his palm into "fair" dice? If so, that would portend that Data could beat Craps straight up, making him the ultimate DI!

Although he could, it wouldn't be in Data's character to load the dice in the player's favor. Yet, he plays well enough to break the bank.

I'm guessing I have put more thought into this than the original script writers!

Quote:

I also enjoyed watching the craps scene in "Diamonds Are Forever" (the James Bond movie set in Las Vegas with Sean Connery). He seemed overly generous to the generously proportioned avaricious young lady.

Named after her father, perhaps? ;)

I loved "Diamonds are Forever" even though it had plot holes big enough to drive that moon buggy through!