Can you win money at craps? Of course. You can win a lot.
However (and this is a big however), your chances of beating the game largely depend on the types of bets you make. Happily, craps has some of the very best bets in the casino. Smart players rely on these excellent craps bets.
The house edges on the good bets range from 1.36% to 1.41% to 1.52%. Such bets give the player a really strong chance at any given time of winning at craps. The house has an edge on these bets but it is a very small edge. It is much easier to beat a small edge than a large edge.
Sadly, there are far more rotten bets at craps – dozens of them. Bets that range into the high teens and on some new-fangled bets into the 20 or higher percentage range. Aside from a stroke of luck from the gods of chance, no one survives craps making these horrible bets very often.
The Best Craps Bets
If you watch a game of craps, you will note that just about every player makes more than one bet. Indeed, three or four or even more bets are thrown onto the table by fevered craps players. Such betting is the equivalent of putting one’s head in a noose and jumping off a balcony. The results will usually be deadly.
I’ve got good news and bad news here. The good news is that the good craps bets are indeed good. The bad news is that all the other craps bets are bad, very bad, and even worse than that. Do not make a bad bet if you want to win at craps. Easy advice to hear; hard advice for craps players to follow for some reason.
| Best Craps Bets | House Edge | Loss Per $100 Wagered |
| Don’t Pass | 1.36 % | $1.36 |
| Don’t Come | 1.36 % | $1.36 |
Tip: On the Don’t Pass and the Don’t Come you are betting against the point or the number and for the 7 during the the game.
| Best Craps Bets | House Edge | Loss Per $100 Wagered |
| Pass Line | 1.41 % | $1.41 |
| Come Bet | 1.41 % | $1.41 |
| Place the 6 for $6 | 1.52 % | $1.52 |
| Place the 6 for $6 | 1.52 % | $1.52 |
Tip: On these four bets you are betting with the point or with the 6 and/or the 8 against the 7.
Please note that I have made the losses out of $100 wagered. A $10 wager will be losses that are one tenth the amount. Also note that you do not lose in steady increments. You’ll win some bets, lose some bets, and so on, but in the course of your craps affairs, this is what the math says you can expect to be down betting this way. Betting “place bets” on the 6 and or 8 is usually done in increments of $6.
The Best Way To Play Craps: Make “Odds Bets”
Now, there is a great bet that the casinos allow you to make once you have a Pass Line or Don’t Pass wager on the board. This option is called “odds.” It can also be used on the Come and Don’t Come bets when they are on a number. It is a vitally good bet.
The Pass and the Come players are betting with the shooter to hit anything but a 7. A winning wager is paid at even money. Of course, when you put that Pass bet up or Come bet up, you can win even-money when 7 or 11 hits (you lose if a 2, 3 or 12 rolls). You have four more ways to win than you have to lose when you wager like this.
Once these bets are on numbers, then the odds shift in favor of the casino. However, the casino will allow you to put more money into the game using a bet called the odds.
This bet has no house edge whatsoever.
How To Place Your Odds Bet
On the Pass Line, you put your odds bet behind your Pass bet; on the Come bet, you place the odds on the layout and the dealer will put that money on your Come bet.
The odds bet will pay the exact correct odds of a bet. If you put odds behind a point of 4, a win will pay off those odds at two to one. On a 10, it is also two to one, on the 6 or 8, the odds will pay $6 to $5 and on the 5 or 9, the odds will pay three to two.
Tip: These odds are based on how often the number hits in relation to how often a 7 will hit.
On the Don’t Pass or Don’t Come, the odds are figured based on how often the 7 rolls. So, for a 4 or 10, you put up twice as much money because the 7 will come up six times to the three times either a 4 or a 10 shows. Same with the other numbers. This means you have the long-end of the bet – in short, you bet more to win less.
The best way to handle these “right” bets is to have as much as you can in odds and a smaller bet on the Pass or Come portion of the bet.
Odds bets can usually come in 2X (two times odds) to 3X, 4X, 5X, 10X or higher.
In some casinos during the pre-pandemic there were casinos that allowed 100X odds on the Pass and Come bets. So, a $5 Pass Line or Come bet could have $500 in odds placed on it. Wow!
Okay, you now know the very best bets in craps. That’s right. The above bets are it. All the other craps bets are not worth making.
Ready to play? Find the best craps casinos here.
Lead image credit: Chris Martin/Flickr, CC BY 2.0