How a Grandma Broke the Record for the Longest Craps Roll Ever

Patricia Demauro holds the record for the longest craps roll ever: 4 hours and 18 minutes, with a whopping 154 rolls. Here’s the story of how she did it.

She came. She hit the craps. She conquered.

Math is a strange subject. At school, only the nerds were excited by algebra, fractions, and decimal points.

In life, numbers are everything: your age, your weight, your shoe size, your social security number.

At the casino, every game is constructed around a mathematical formula. It’s all about numbers and they are always slightly tilted in the house’s favor.

Remember that nerd from high school? He’s the guy killing it at the best online gambling sites and blackjack tables today.

And it’s numbers that we are playing with today.

In this case, the extraordinary digits associated with New Jersey grandmother Patricia ‘Patsy’ Demauro: The Queen of Craps.

Let’s turn back time, head to the Garden State, and revisit the ultimate roll.

Setting the Scene

It’s Saturday, May 23, 2009, Demauro is in Atlantic City with her friend John Capra. The pair has a gambling itch that needs scratching.

They head to the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, recently revamped and home to the biggest poker room in town.

Demauro opts to play it safe and hits the penny slots. Capra heads to the three-card poker table. They plan to pace themselves; take it steady.

He said: “We figured we were staying for a few days and we didn’t want to lose too much. It had been a tough night for both of us.

“So, we figured we’d team up and play one hundred dollars. If we lost it, we would get something to eat and then go to bed.”

A few hours later, Demauro is bored. She tracks down John. He’s also not having a great night.

He’s in the poker room, opposite the craps table. Demauro has only ever played craps once before.

“Pat had been playing slots and I had been playing three-card poker. I was down about seven-hundred dollars and I didn’t want to take a beating in one night. I told Pat to come to the craps table with me and roll and win us some money.

“She had rolled once before, several months before this. I was looking for Lady Luck.”

Say Hello to Lady Luck

They decide to make their final play of the night. It’s 8.13 pm. They buy-in for $100. There are only four people at the table.

They both bet $20 on the pass line. The dice are passed to John. He passes them straight to Pat. “You shoot,” he says. “If we lose now, we call it a night.”

If you’re not familiar with the game of craps, it can be bewildering; the come bet, the inside combination, the hardway, the boxman, the shooter. It’s not just a roll of the dice.

The action starts with the initial roll; known as the ‘come out’ roll. It has to be a four, five, six, eight, nine, or 10. You can check out our guide on how to play craps for a more detailed explanation of the rules and gameplay.

After a few rolls, Demauro established her point: she rolled an eight. Now, people start to bet the table.

And that’s how the longest craps roll all started.

For the next four hours and 18 minutes, Pat Demauro rolled the dice, with Lady Luck riding shotgun.

Getting into the Zone

She said: “After about twelve rolls I started to feel a kind of momentum. I was getting in a zone. I wasn’t nervous at all.

“I just threw the dice down the middle of the table and hit the back wall. Rub my hands; throw the dice. Rub my hands; throw the dice.

“I didn’t deviate from that. I just kind of got into that habit and I just kept doing it.”

Although it wasn’t a typical craps strategy, it sure was effective.

After around 45 minutes, a crowd had gathered at the craps table; drawn by the cheers and whoops of happy players cashing in on the Demauro streak.

Little did they realize, it was still the overture. There were at least another four movements to follow.

There were now about 18 people pressed in around the table, with a larger crowd building behind. Demauro was fully in the zone.

She said: “Within an hour and a half, a huge crowd started to gather behind the players at the table. I just didn’t bother looking at the people behind the players. I would have become distracted. By this time, I was in a dream world.”

Two Hours In…

At two hours, the craps table was swamped with bets. The dealers, struggling to stay on top of the action.

Money was being tossed onto the table. Someone started chanting, “Come on, Patsy!” – and everyone at the table picked it up.

She said: “I remember hearing the ‘Come on Patsy!’ chant with each roll. It was like being at a ball game. People playing in the other pits were standing up to see what was happening.”

Everyone was making a ton of cash. The roll continued.

After three hours, the table was loaded. Every play was taking a lot of time to sort. The Borgata executives had all come down to see the action.

At four hours, people were on their phones checking to see if records were being broken. They were.

154 Rolls & a New World Record Later

In the end, after 154 perfect rolls, the seven arrived.

Just to put it in context of craps odds: the average number of rolls before seven hits is eight.

Prior to Pat, the previous longest craps roll was by a man called the “Captain” in 2005; he managed 147.

When the seven hit, the table was silent for about five seconds.

“I heard the stickman shout out, ‘Seven out! Take the line, pay the don’ts'”, Pat recalls.

“Everything went dead for about five seconds. No sound. Just silence, like the end of the world. Then the table exploded into applause.”

The executives were ready with the Dom Perignon champagne and the publicity release forms.

Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and scores of journalists would be calling; all asking the same questions: How did you do it? How does it feel?

There is a little bit of debate about exactly how rare Demauro’s roll was.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the odds of the roll are 1,560,000,000,000 to one. You’re more likely to die in a plane crash, get hit by lightning, or win the lottery.

According to an executive from the Borgata Casino, the house lost just under $200,000 during the game. Had there been some serious players at the table, it would have been in the millions.

And back to those questions: How did she do it? How did it feel to hit the longest craps roll ever?

In the words of the Queen of Craps herself: “I had positive energy. I was relaxed. And I was lucky.”

No kidding…