Dice Tricks
Misspots are so obvious when you get a good look at them that most novices can't believe they could actually be used undetected in a game.
Commonly, misspotted dice will have, say, all 5s on one die, all 6s and 2s on the other. That way, no matter which side turns up, the combination will be either 7 or an 11 - a winning combination on the come-out for the lucky, or dishonest, shooter.
Do they really fool anyone? Some, the ones who don't know how to use their hands, will just put a pair of "doorpops" into the game and hope for the best.
It's kind of easy - slip them under some pile of cash a player had in front of them. Then they'd drop the doorpops out of their hand, rake in the bets, and push the straight dice back out.
'Shapes", also called "bricks", are dice that are not square. The two most common kinds are "missouts", which favor craps, and "passers", which increase the possibility that the shooter will pass, or win at point.
When "missouts" are in the game, the mechanic who put them there will bet against the shooter. When it's passers that have been slipped in, the person in the know will bet on the shooter.
"Bevels" work on the same principle, except that instead of being filed to a rectangular shape, they have been beveled so that one or more sides are curved slightly outward. When these dice fall on their curved sides, they will most likely keep on going until they come to rest on a flat side.
Unlike "misspots", "shaped" or "beveled" dice only have a tendency to fall a certain way. Probabilities on the side of the mechanic are increased, but nothing is certain. Impatient cheaters prefer "doorpops".
Those who are content to wait for inevitable mathematical advantage use the less detectable forms of crooked dice.
Another popular kind of dishonest dice are "loads", or weighted dice. Some people mistakenly refer to all kinds of cheating dice as loaded, but obviously there are many ways to fix dice, and loading is only one of them.
"Loads" have various weights inserted in them at the time of manufacture, to make them favor one number or another. To the inexperienced, loads are almost impossible to spot.
But people who have been around gambling for a while - most likely, including your friendly neighborhood casino croupier - can tell by the way the dice feel in the hand whether they are loaded, or not.