crapshoot

crapshoot

A situation whose outcome is uncertain or unpredictable. Refers to the gambling game "craps." This neighborhood has been revitalized in recent years, but buying a house here is still a financial crapshoot.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

crapshoot

n. a gamble; a matter of chance. (Like a crap [dice] game.) The stock market isn’t concerned with value anymore. It’s just a crapshoot.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • joker
  • the joker in the pack
  • it ain't over till/until the fat lady sings
  • seven out
  • take the Browns to the Super Bowl
  • roll the bones
  • roll the dice
  • crap out
  • crapped out
  • amateur hour
References in periodicals archive
Engine overhauls are a crapshoot. The best engine shops have been known to collapse suddenly or have a period where they have problems.
I suppose if you offered coupons or contests as a lure, that was one way to keep track of your success, but overall it was basically a crapshoot.
Despite public flu health-surveillance forecasts, the cough-cold season is often a crapshoot for retailers.
It's a bit of a crapshoot, because those judges are free, once appointed, from any accountability to the state's chief executive."
Seven of these pieces reflect the global economy: Stash of Cash, Money Bag, It's a Crapshoot, Economic Collapse, To Health and Wealth, Bundles of Money and Drawer of Dreams.
Yet even with those advantages, the familiar game plan and trappings make it at best a crapshoot as to whether Ryan and his wounded heart will, well, you know.
"Flu B has been a dilemma, and I do look forward to having a quadrivalent so that our crapshoot is not so poor," one of the panel members, Dr.
At that meeting, held annually to recommend the two influenza A and one influenza B strains to be included in the vaccine in the United States for the upcoming season, panelists pointed out how challenging it is every year to choose which B strain to recommend, based on the different B strains that are circulating worldwide, and described choosing the B component as a "gamble" and a "crapshoot."
Special VFR at night is a bit of a crapshoot, because you really can't see the clouds.
"When you come down to those, then it's even more of a crapshoot.
"While we expected them to work well, it was still a crapshoot how they'd turn out.
Without one-on-one time, it's a crapshoot. I don't like the odds.
"Asking for such waivers is a crapshoot, dependent on the whims of bureaucrats."
Testing in late fall is always a crapshoot up north (I live in Florida, so everything is up nort').
However, Pabrai's description of an innovative company as "a crapshoot" or his claim that investing is "all about the odds" obliterates an important distinction between making a calculated investment and betting on the outcome of a coin toss (pp.