Craps The Captain of craps is real

I know that I will take some heat here but the following is a true account, whether you believe it or not is up to you........




I am a voracious reader of casino and gambling related literature, One of the most prolific authors in this genre is Frank Scoblete, who posts on this board. I loved his Craps books that featured The Captain, The Arm and The Crew. One day, maybe a dozen years ago, I was at a craps table in Atlantic City and I saw an older man with white hair carefully setting the dice and tossing them down the table. He was doing quite well. I thought about the Captain of Craps that I read about and wondered if it was him, after his successful roll a woman that may have been his wife came up and spoke with him, he cashed in and left the table. I never spoke to him.
About ten years ago, I was thinking about the adventures of "The Captain" and his crew. I found the mystery of whether he existed and if so, who was he, fascinating. So I decided to try to discern if he was a real person or a titular character, created to present Mr. Scoblete's gambling methods. To give you a little background about me, I was born in Brooklyn NY, the hometown of the Captain in the books, and lived the majority of my life in NYC. I had a successful career in law enforcement with most of my assignments being related to conducting and supervising investigations into serious matters.
I began my hobby project to find the truth about character, by reading the books Mr Scoblete had available at the time, I believe it was three. I also read several interviews of The Captain which were published in the now defunct Chance and Circumstance Magazine. In addition, I scoured the internet and read everything I could find written about The Captain. It is important to note, that in his writings, Mr. Scoblete said that the Captain's real name would be recognized by people in the general public so that was one of the reason he was not revealing his identity
In my research, I found that besides telling the stories of the Captain's exploits, Mr. Scoblete also provided a lot of detailed information about The Captain.
Putting together all the information that I gathered, I then reviewed public records to verify some ideas I had.
Finally, I pretty much had it narrowed down to one person.

I know that at this point in your reading of this post you are probably saying this is all "bullshit." You can think that if you want, but I assure you this is all true. It does not matter to me if you believe it or not.

Anyway, I will continue; To confirm my suspicions, I spoke with an old-timer I knew in NYC. He was a knock-around guy that had seen it all. Based on what I knew of the old-timers life story, I was certain that he would definitely have rubbed shoulders with my suspect. When I spoke to him he said he knew my suspect and also members of his family (I believe the family members may been deceased by then... my memory is fuzzy on that). He recalled they liked gambling and were frequent visitors to the racetrack before casino gambling arrived. However, the old-timer was strictly interested in horse racing and he had no interest in casino gambling so he never visited a casino with them or was part of any "crew."
Even though I could not confirm the casino visits, based on certain other facts he provided I was more certain than ever, that I was correct about my suspect.

Finally it was time to review everything to ensure I had it all straight, but when I was putting everything together, I discovered that there was one major problem. In rereading Mr. Scoblete's book, there was a major contradiction. There was a statement in there that would make it impossible for my suspect to be The Captain.
I put the project aside for a while. Then one day I decided to re-visit the project. This time, I began to consider that Mr. Scoblete put the point that was troubling me into the book to throw someone off, I reread the paragraph, but this time I though of the words meaning differently, it then occurred to me I was looking at that aspect wrong and there was actually no contradiction, just a different interpretation.

I put my evidence together and contacted Mr. Scoblete by e-mail, giving him my word that I would respect the wishes of The Captain to maintain his privacy.

Mr. Scoblete responded to my e-mail. There is no reason to indicate whether Mr. Scoblete confirmed my theory or not, I know I am correct and if you chose to doubt me nothing I write will change your mind. I can just assure you that The Captain was a real person. He is now deceased, and I will never reveal his identity.

 

Scan - we do not doubt the Captain is a real person ... HOWEVER, the Captain's exploits on the craps table have been highly exaggerated for commercial purposes just as your original instincts suspected IMO .... just like many of Frank's trip reports including 1 where I was on the table with him in which Frank wrote:

However, my account of the same toss was:

The parentheticals added to my original trip report after comparing mine to Frank's ... and Frank never denied this discrepancy

Reference Link --> http://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/craps/13188-2-tales-of-the-same-event-ruined-by-biased-dice/

 

Yea, but what about Tennille?

 

... actually Tennille has been in more casinos lately than another exaggerated character - the Mad Professor, who hasn't played craps or been to a comped show in either of his 2 closest home casinos in over 4 years

 

Scan ... interesting that you, the Captain and Frank Scoblete were all born in Brooklyn NY

 

Smell fishy to me too. Definitely a conspiracy is going on. Probably related to the Kennedy assasination.

 

Forgive my ignorance. But was the name of the person in question withheld through the years to protect him from casino recognition and allow him to apply his trade without heat from the casino? Or was there another reason

If the person is dead, what is the value in withholding his name.

what can be done with that type of info if it was revealed?

Again I dont know all the stories....so maybe there is something I dont understand.

 

I think his name is still being withheld, because his family is extremely wealthy from the millions he took off the tables.

 

Interesting thread. The Captain's name was and is being withheld at his request. It's as simple as that.

 

Forget boots, the feces is piled so high you need hip waders

 

I think Frank has simply created the Captain and his crew out of a composite of MANY players and people he has meet over the years for the sake of his fictional writing. This is very common for writers t do such, to sort of mold a character for their stories out of several people they meet up with.

 

Wonder if any other authors or even those in the film industry would reach the last opinion?

 

Frank's strategy of having the Captain win all those monies is a brilliant move - not only for marketing to the gullible, but also to hide scrutiny and any possible winnings from the InRevSer (misspelled on purpose to avoid search flags from the bolded letters)

OTOH, schools like Steve "Heavy" Haltom and Howard Rock n Roller that continuously boast and exaggerate their wins associated with their real names will start to bring unnecessary InReSe attention to craps:

What Heavy does not explain:
1. That over $2700. of that $5000. was won on 2 bets on the 4 out of the whole trip ??!!
2. How much of that extra money was from Seminar tuition ??
3. How much of the $5K was from slot play ??!!

The InReSe has already made stricter laws on Poker players that bragged about their winnings and now are targeting boasting Video Poker players with recent law proposals. These selfish exaggerated winning reports on craps can bring more harm to the Dice Community not only in the area of additional heat at the tables but possibly again when you pay the piper in April.

 

thats funny. You mean he sent out a memo to everyone that knew him stating that he didnt want peole to use his real name after he was dead...."just because". And it seems everyone got the memo. And everyone complies. Not one disgruntled person who disliked him speaks up. He was a saint. Everyone follows his wishes. Just like all the imaginary people in the universe followed the wishes of my imaginary friend jake, when I was 5 years old.

You know for real people things tend to leak out. CIA operatives get exposed, undercover cops get outed but this "real person" has eluded being exposed. That is amazing. And then he gives a directive from his deathbed that no one is to reveal his name...and why would he want that????.....the answer is "just because".

 

Seriously, who cares if the Captain is real or not? How many other myths resided on these Blogs, people you hear about but never see, and more than likely will ever see. It is all a Kabuki dance, it is put out there to sell product, it is marketing, caveat emptor. Now as far as real people, and one who some here have seen on numerous occasions in AC and other places, WWII vet Bob "Bucko" Fuller, father of the Fish Mouth Release, and author of The Dice are Out. If interested Amazon.com has 1 used copy.

Novels are great for mixing fact and fiction together with characters who may or may not have existed to make the story acceptable. Non-fiction tells the story like it is, there is just no need for imaginary events or people, it may add interest, but it under cuts it's honesty/integrity, and then it becomes a novel.

 

"Non-fiction tells the story like it is, there is just no need for imaginary events or people, it may add interest, but it under cuts it's honesty/integrity, and then it becomes a novel."

I agree.

 

In my humble opinion, craps dice setting or dice influence or dice control etc are more of an art than science. It could be just like archery. Everybody knows the science behind the bow and arrow and how to try to hit the bull's eye but everybody can not do that with equal precision. There may be someone nicknamed, "Captain" doing better than average players or it may be a fictional character like superman. Point is, every story of enormous wins in casinos is as much a fiction for you as the "captain" since you did not witnessed that or enjoyed that personally. Better focus on becoming something like the said, "captain" than debating about whether he was for real or not.
If he is actually no more, his identity should be easily revealed. It could be a way to honor a legend. When he was winning regularly his identity was already open to casinos or did he use masks? I remember when I did multiple withdrawals from a casino in a few days every one related with the casino started to notice this and once a manager came to me and said, "why don't you move around this beautiful city, you are only sitting here and playing like crazy, have fun". Someone playing and winning almost regularly can not remain unnoticed.

 

"Someone playing and winning almost regularly can not remain unnoticed."

I agree.

 

Frank,..This is the best one I ever heard.

Other players always ask me why I never went after you starting with the Captain! For years just about everybody that know anything about craps has said your captain was a fictional character. Now this is me just saying what everybody else has said about the captain. You can't be that naïve that you never heard the same thing.


Now playing craps here in Vegas all the time you get to meet a lot of players that have been around for years, some lived in the NJ area when you first wrote about your captain and played in AC. They never heard about the captains roll, I ask my cousin who worked in the casinos at that time if she ever heard about that roll. Nobody has ever heard a thing about it,..unless they read your books.


Now I will ask you how could that happen,..craps players are like old women. When someone has a great roll everybody is talking about it! Nobody ever talked about that roll and you let the captain die without ever telling anybody who he was! Do you see why anybody would have a hard time believing your story?


Now as far as going after you because others think you are a fiction writer on some of the stuff that you have written, by the way I do defend you because I've seen you playing craps. Others have met you and taking classes off you and that is what I tell them.

Now the times that I saw you shooting you weren't doing to good,..but with that said if you saw me shooting today when I started out you would have said these guy can't shoot for shit. I had 5 PSO's and one short little roll, before everybody left the table.


We all have those kind of days, but even with those short rolls I walked out with a profit after every got off the table. I was trying out a new shoot that I've been working on and wanted to take it into two different casinos . Well I only made it to the first one. Because players kept buying into the table. So for the most part it was just a waste of time, until all the other players left.


I don't call anybody a fiction writer, unless I can prove it without a shadow of doubt it. So you are still getting a free pass, but there is that the lingering question about the Captain,..You could have put it to rest years ago if the Captain came out and shown the world how he could shoot.

There will always be readers of your book questioning the Captains story, if they know anything about craps!!!! Do you blame anybody for questioning that story?


Finally Frank why don't you learn to use quotes, after going back and rereading the thread, I found out that you were quoting Pressit!

 

Super
I agree with your analysis above. In the world we live in of computers and cell phone pictures it is impossible for an infamous person to get around without being noticed and I.D'd.
Not one person "in the know" has come foward.

One person said its a secret because his family is living off millions he won. So what, the casinos arent in a position to ask for the money back. He won it fair and square.

There is absolutely no reason to keep his identity secret AFTER his death.

There is absolutely no reason someone not close to him, but knew who he was hasnt come forward.

There is absolutely no reason why someone who hated his guts hasnt come foward.

Its kind of like UFO's. You would think with the technology out there that someone would have taken a clear picture of one by now. You know we never expected people to carry a poloraoid camera in case a UFO landed at their campsite. But with todays technology thats not the case anymore.

no business person taking a credit card from him who recognized him from the tables, no barber who cut his hair, no waitress who took his credit card, no one who knew where he lived that could research his name from his address or car license plate number.

there are so many ways his name could have leaked out in this hi-tech world.