This comes up from time to time (actually, it comes up ALL the time) and I thought I would just repeat "the bottom line" for everyone who is concerned or interested in what is a "legal" throw at craps and whether or not it is okay to try to set, influence or even control the dice when playing craps.
I also posted this on the Wizard of Vegas forum. Unlike the other posts there, my information comes direct from the Nevada Gaming Commission.
A casino can ban you, block you from playing, ask you to leave, keep you from shooting at any time and for any reason -- whether you try to influence the dice or not.
The position of the Nevada Gaming Commission is that SHOOTERS ARE ALLOWED TO TRY TO INFLUENCE, SET, AND CONTROL THE DICE as long as the following conditions are met:
1. The dice must fly in the air, off the table (to eliminated sliding)
2. The dice must bounce on the table surface at least once (to eliminate sliding)
3. The dice must hit the back wall
There is NO requirement that the dice must bounce off the back wall, or that the dice must bounce off the back wall any particular distance.
What I wrote above is how the NGC defines a "legal throw" and legal does not mean it is a written law, so you might want to use the term "acceptable throw."
BUT NOW COMES THE BIG CAVEAT:
Casinos are private businesses and if they don't want you setting, throwing, or betting they can ask you to leave and prohibit you from being there. So if a casino asks you not to set your dice -- you can't. If a casino asks that your dice must bounce off the back wall -- you have to do it.
I want to add this:
At NYNY they took the dice away from me because I was setting and winning even though my dice were bouncing all over the table. Just the act of setting and apparently winning was too much for them.
At MGM I was warned that if both dice don't hit the back wall EVEN ONCE the boxman is to take the dice away from me.
At Bellagio my dice were hitting the table and rolled softly so they came to rest against the back wall. But the table crew insisted that the dice must bounce off the back wall and when I argued with that it caused a big uproar. I won't rehash that story, but later management said the crew was wrong and just hitting the back wall was sufficient.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It doesn't matter what is a "legal" or "acceptable" throw or how the gaming regulators define it, because each house has its own rules anyway. You can argue what the NGC says and it doesn't matter. If the house says you can't set the dice, then you can't.
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