Downtown Las Vegas casino looks for downsized game to go big

A new craps table at a downtown casino is making the game seem much smaller — 8 feet, to be precise.

Four Queens, a Fremont Street Experience-adjacent hotel-casino, added a baby craps table to its pit to attract different customers and address staffing challenges during day shifts, said Glenn Casale, director of casino operations.

The mini version of a craps table now sits at the edge of the card game section of the casino, slightly away from its full-size craps table area. Casale said they added the table, manufactured by United Kingdom-based TCS John Huxley, about six months ago.

The table has the same payouts as a regular craps game, but the tub is 8 feet long instead of a traditional 14- or 16-foot table. The casino leaves out chairs for players and the smaller table only requires two workers, versus four at a larger one.

“Sometimes we have people who come down during the day shift when it’s open because of this game,” Casale said. “You can sit down, and some say it’s easier to deal with.”

The smaller table came out of necessity, he said. There are fewer dealers working in Las Vegas compared with pre-pandemic.

According to the most recently available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 19,590 gambling dealers employed in the valley in May 2019, compared with 14,940 four years later — a roughly 24 percent decrease.

The property had fewer casino dealers and supervisors to staff during the day but still wanted to offer the game. (The table is sometimes open during other shifts, depending on demand.) It also reduces labor costs because it requires fewer dealers at a time.

“We want to make sure that we can still offer craps, but a little different,” Casale said.

Another baby craps table is expected to come to sister property Binion’s Gambling Hall by the end of the summer with a slightly different configuration, where players all sit on one side. At least one other mini table can be found around downtown, at Golden Nugget’s poolside gaming pit.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.