OFTEN ON, OFTEN OFF, OFTEN OFF AND ON--WHAT??

True story:  My friend and I are casino dealers.  He, especially, deals craps/dice quite often.  For those not highly acquainted with the game, bets are made and the dice rolls determine whether they win, lose, or simply remain for future rolls.  At times certain bets are allowed to be "off," meaning they can't win or lose on that particular roll.  Examples of such bets are "hard ways."  At certain junctures, one of the dealers announces, "Hard ways work unless you call them off."  Translation:  on this dice roll, hard ways can possibly win or lose unless an owner of such a bet yells that his/hers are off--cannot win or lose on that roll.  Why one roll should be any different from any other one for those bets is a mystery in itself to a trained mathematician like me, but that's a discussion for another place and time.

Anyway, my friend properly elicited, "Hard ways work unless you call them off."  Strictly speaking, no response, of course, means they're working.  Only if one doesn't want them to be subject to winning and, especially, to losing, should the player respond at all.  Well, humans--and especially dice players--have their own styles; and, as we all know, the customer is always right--not to mention the fact that sometimes it seems at craps if you're not cheating, you're not trying.  That concept also fills pages of casino manuals!  But to continue, one particular player, in a Texas-sounding accent, responded to my friend's standard announcement, "My hard ways are o__."  Again, the fact that the player said anything should have indicated that he wanted his bets not to count.  I wrote his comment in mysterious form because that accent can really help muddle the difference between "off" and "on."  Well, a hard way was rolled.  That guest demanded to be paid.  "You said your hard ways were off, Sir," my friend explained.  "No," the guest insisted, "I said they were on!"

The upshot?  Management paid the guest, but now my friend delineates by repeating with the terms "working" and "not working."  Still, if you want to try to cheat, mumble, "My bets are onf."  Just don't attempt it on my friend anymore!

Oh, there's a built-in kicker here.  Craps players know there is actually a common transaction in the game known as "off and on."  Fortunately, the dealer states and handles that situation; so it shouldn't run into such difficulties as we noted above.