Crown and Anchor

👥 2–20 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Calm 🧩 Simple ⏱ 20-45 minutes 🎂 Ages 4+

Quick Pitch

Crown and Anchor is a traditional British naval gambling game played with three special dice marked with six symbols — Crown, Anchor, Diamond, Club, Heart, and Spade — where you bet on which symbols will appear and win based on how many dice show your symbol.

Hook

The betting cloth shows all six symbols and you place your chips on whichever ones you think will come up. Roll three dice: each die shows one symbol, and for every die that matches a symbol you bet on, you win one chip back on top of your original bet. Bet on Crown, roll three Crowns, and you triple your money. Bet on Anchor, roll no Anchors, and you lose it. The game is pure chance, the rules fit on one card, and the special dice with their nautical symbols are the entire charm.

Equipment Needed

  • 3 special dice (marked with crown, anchor, diamond, club, heart, spade instead of numbers)
    • OR use regular dice and designate: 1=Crown, 2=Anchor, 3=Diamond, 4=Club, 5=Heart, 6=Spade
  • Betting layout (shows six betting positions for each symbol)
  • Betting chips or coins

Setup

  1. Create or display the betting layout with six symbols
  2. Each player receives equal betting chips
  3. Determine betting limits
  4. Players place bets on symbols they think will appear

Rules

Objective

Win chips by betting on which symbols appear in the dice roll.

Betting Phase

Players place chips on any of the six symbols:

  • Crown
  • Anchor
  • Diamond
  • Club
  • Heart
  • Spade

You can bet on one or multiple symbols. Bet amounts can vary.

Rolling Phase

The dealer or designated roller shakes the three dice and rolls them out.

Payout

For each die showing your symbol:

  • 1 die matching: You get your bet back + 1 chip
  • 2 dice matching: You get your bet back + 2 chips
  • 3 dice matching: You get your bet back + 3 chips
  • No dice matching: You lose your bet

In simple terms: You're paid the number of dice showing your symbol.

Example Round

  • Player A bets 5 chips on Crown and 3 chips on Anchor
  • Dice roll: Crown, Anchor, Heart
  • Player A has:
    • 1 Crown showing (wins 5 chips)
    • 1 Anchor showing (wins 3 chips)
    • Total win: 8 chips

Another example:

  • Player B bets 4 chips on Diamond
  • Dice roll: Crown, Anchor, Heart
  • Player B has:
    • 0 Diamonds showing (loses 4 chips)

Another example:

  • Player C bets 2 chips on Spade
  • Dice roll: Spade, Spade, Spade
  • Player C has:
    • 3 Spades showing (wins 6 chips!)

Expert Player

Tips

  1. Probability: Each symbol has a 1/2 chance of appearing on each die
  2. Expected value: Betting pays 1:1 on appearance; the house has no inherent edge if bets are equal
  3. Diversify bets: Betting on multiple symbols reduces variance
  4. High-value symbols: There's no difference between symbols—they're equally likely
  5. Bankroll management: Bet conservatively to avoid quick losses
  6. House variant: In some versions, the house takes a cut (reduces payout to 0.9:1)

Variations

Banker Variant

  • One player is the banker/house
  • Other players bet against the banker
  • Banker collects all lost bets; pays all winning bets

High-Low Variant

  • Add betting on "high" (Crown, Anchor, Diamond) and "low" (Club, Heart, Spade)
  • Additional betting options

Multiple Rounds Tournament

  • Play fixed number of rounds
  • Highest chip total wins overall

Rapid Fire Variant

  • Dice rolled continuously without resetting bets
  • Players can change bets between rolls
Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Crown and Anchor developed in Britain during the 18th century and became one of the signature gambling games of the Royal Navy, played by sailors aboard ships and in port towns across the British Empire. The distinctive six symbols — Crown, Anchor, Diamond, Heart, Club, Spade — made the game immediately identifiable with its naval context, and the portability of three dice and a folded cloth betting layout made it practical on board ships. The game spread throughout the British Commonwealth wherever the Navy traveled, and it remains particularly associated with traditional British and Caribbean pub and festival culture.

Cultural Context

Crown and Anchor occupies a specific cultural space in British and Commonwealth tradition — it is the classic "fairground dice game," the game you find at village fetes, naval exhibitions, and folk festivals in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the Caribbean. Barbados has a particularly strong Crown and Anchor tradition, where the game is associated with independence celebrations and festival culture. The game's mechanics are essentially the same as the Chinese Sic-Bo and share structure with Passe-Dix and Chuck-a-Luck, suggesting that dice games with symbol-betting layouts emerged independently across multiple cultures. In Britain, Crown and Anchor is technically classified as gambling, which means it is only legally playable for money at licensed events — a legal status that has given it a persistent slightly-illicit folk reputation that fits its sailors-and-port-towns heritage perfectly.

See Also