Gambling terms, explained straight

Advantage Play & Game Integrity

Dice control

Dice control is a disputed craps technique where a player sets the dice in a chosen orientation and throws them in a controlled manner, aiming to influence the result rather than letting the dice tumble at random.

Also called
Controlled shooting, dice setting, precision shooting.12
Claimed mechanism
Set dice in a chosen orientation and throw them to stay on-axis, minimising contact with the back wall.12
House edge context
At a 3-4-5x odds table the house edge is 0.374%.4

Key points

  • Dice control is not supported by independent evidence of a reliable real-casino effect.23
  • The technique involves setting the dice and throwing them to stay on-axis, ideally landing just before the back wall.12

Common questions

Is dice control real?

Dice control is a real technique that some players practice, but independent evidence of a reliable effect in real casinos is lacking.23

Does dice setting work in craps?

Dice setting is claimed to work by reducing random tumbling, but no independent evidence confirms it produces a consistent advantage in live casino play.23

Advantage play Craps dice control Covers the same technique with more detail on setting and throwing methods. Advantage play Courtsiding An advantage play technique that uses live information from sports events. Advantage play Card counting A blackjack advantage play technique that tracks the ratio of high to low cards. Advantage play Matched betting A risk-free method to profit from free bets and promotions offered by bookmakers. Advantage play Blackjack card counting A strategy to gain an edge in blackjack by keeping a running count of cards. Advantage play Arbitrage betting A technique that exploits differing odds across bookmakers to profit.

Sources

  1. Testing for dice control at craps arxiv.org Provides academic analysis of dice control testing and the claimed on-axis mechanism.
  2. Dice control en.wikipedia.org Defines dice control and its alternative names, and notes the lack of independent evidence.
  3. Craps en.wikipedia.org Confirms the lack of independent evidence for a reliable effect in real casinos.
  4. Dice Setting - Wizard of Odds wizardofodds.com Supplies the house edge figure for a 3-4-5x odds table.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.