Did you
know?

high roller
idiom

- someone who spends a lot of money or who gambles with large amounts of money

(Cambridge Dictionary)

---
High roller is just one of the many idioms, expressions and phrases that stem from the world of gambling. More precisely, it refers to the dice game called "craps," in which players roll a pair of dice and bet money on which number will turn up.

Dice games can be traced back to the Roman Empire, where soldiers shaved down pig knuckles into the shapes of cubes. They then rolled the pig knuckles onto their inverted shields for entertainment while in camp.

Craps is thought to have originated from a game called Hazard however. Legend has it that Hazard was developed by Sir William of Tyre throughout the Crusades in order to combat boredom while blockading a castle called Hazarth or Azarth.

Another theory about the origins of Hazard is that it was invented by an Arab since the Arabic word for dice is Al Zar. In any case, in Hazard the roll of the dice with the lowest value was called crabs. It's assumed that when French immigrants brought the game to America, especially the New Orleans area, the term crabs simply evolved to craps and was eventually adopted to describe game as a whole.

Finally, another theory is that the name craps stemmed from "crapaud," a French word meaning "toad" in reference to the original style of play by people crouched over a floor or sidewalk.

(sources: Wikipedia, www.onlinecasinoexpert.com)

---
SYNONYMS

big spender, player, profligate, spendthrift, wastrel

---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation

"We'd need a high-roller investor to fund a risky business plan like this."

Thanks to Ron for suggesting today's word