David Boies makes it out to Las Vegas a few times a year. In February he checked into the Encore, the newest hotel developed by Steve Wynn (a client) on the Strip. Boies had some legal business in town, but he was mainly there to relax and gamble.

Craps is his game. Boies enjoys the social aspect of chatting up fellow gamblers and cheering on the dice roller. But for the celebrated litigator, who reasons relentlessly about everything, it’s also about the odds. Craps offers the only bet — the so-called odds bet — in which the house does not take an edge.