Online Craps

A little fun with craps

Earl Wilson once gave a character recommendation by saying "He was so honest you could play craps with him over the telephone."

Ken Livingstone condemned the financial professions in London by using the name of the game in a double-entendre; "What a squalid and irresponsible little profession it is. Nothing prepares you for how bad Fleet Street really is until it craps on you from a great height."

William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist," mentioned gaming in this context: "To me, film right now is dormant. It's a sleeping giant. It's the plaything of corporations. The people who determine what American film is today are no different from high rollers who go to Las Vegas. They just want to take all the money and put it on one big number and roll the dice on that number and if it craps out, next number. Next case."

If you want to see an example of how film and gambling go together, you could do worse than to watch the movie "Vegas Vacation" with Chevy Chase. Nobody claims that the "Vacation" series rival the cinematic output of Ingmar Bergman. But the humor can be entertaining. In this movie, the response when one character says "I just want to be alone" is "Do you mind if I go with you?" Wallace Shawn is truly amusing as a malicious blackjack dealer. The principals in the cast are Randy Quaid, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo, who has something of an affair with Wayne Newton, playing himself. Other cameo appearances are made by Sid Caesar, Julia Sweeny and Siegfried & Roy. Much of the film is shot inside casinos; it is quite heartening to see actor Ethan Embry play the under-aged Rusty using a fake ID to get inside a gambling palace, where he makes out big time playing craps.