Man preps others for game of craps' debut

Denis Kellam is a craps evangelist.

To him, the complicated dice game is the best way to spend an hour in the casino - or away from the casino: Kellam built his own scaled-down craps table, which he takes to local bars for craps nights (without wagering real money, naturally).

"It's the most social of all the games in the casino," he said. "You're not playing against anyone - everyone is playing against the house."

And no one not working for a casino could be more excited about craps coming to Cripple Creek on July 2 as one of the rule changes allowed by Amendment 50, which Colorado voters approved last November.

Casinos are counting on craps, roulette, $100 limits and 24-hour gaming to reverse a slide in their fortunes.
Kellam just wants to play.

Craps, however, can be an intimidating game.

"People are scared to death by craps," said MaryAnn Kellam, Denis Kellam's wife. "People play for free at our table, but they're still hesitant to come up."

It requires four or more people to run the table, which is a huge expanse of green felt covered with cryptic numbers and words like "Pass/Don't Pass."

And it has its own lingo and superstitions. (Never say "seven" when the puck is "on," says Kellam.) When a game is on, players place stacks of chips all over the board, and there frequently seems to be a hundred things going on at once.

"It's a very difficult game," said Gary Findlay, who helped set up a dealer training school at Pikes Peak Community College in preparation for July 2.

"It's such a cool game," he said. "I guess it remains to be seen how many people in the area actually know it and want to play it."

Not every casino will offer craps because of the size of the tables and the manpower required to run a game. The usual ratio, Findlay said, is one craps table per 500 slot machines.

Kellam worries the casinos will pull out their craps tables if not enough people come to play. So he and MaryAnn Are doing their part to educate the gambling public.

"You can't watch craps," she said. "You have to play."