Craps online

Craps is a table of many bets on the same two dice, and because two dice can fall in only 36 ways, the house edge of every bet can be worked out exactly with a pencil. The range is one of the widest in the casino, from a bet that keeps nothing at all to one that keeps a sixth of every stake. The cheapest bets are also the least exciting.

The player of our examples puts $10 on each bet tried, at a table that throws the dice 100 times an hour (an assumption for the arithmetic, not a measured pace), so that you can read the cost of each bet in dollars per hour. Every edge on this page is our own calculation from the 36 combinations, and each one matches the published figures to the second decimal.

Thirty-six ways for two dice to fall

A total of seven can be made six ways (1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4, each in two orders), six and eight five ways each, and the totals grow rarer towards 2 and 12, which have one way each. Every figure below follows from that list.

The game starts with the "come-out roll" (the opening roll of each round), on which a "pass line" bet wins at once on 7 or 11 and loses on 2, 3 or 12, the totals called "craps". Any other total becomes the "point", and the pass line then wins if the point is rolled again before a seven.

Over the come-out and the six points, the pass line wins 244 in 495 (49.29 per cent), a house edge of 1.41 per cent at even money. For our player that is 14 cents lost on average for every $10 round, and it is the price of the simplest bet that the table offers, which is where we would begin.

Pass, don't pass, come and don't come

"Don't pass" is the mirror bet: it wins on 2 or 3 at the come-out, loses on 7 or 11, and wins if the seven beats the point. A perfect mirror would give the player the edge, so the 12 on the come-out is a push (the rule called "bar 12"), and the bet keeps 1.36 per cent, slightly less than the pass line.

"Come" and "don't come" are the same two bets when they are made on a later roll (each with its own come-out), and they carry the same edges. The "seven out" (a seven after a point is set) ends the round badly for pass bettors and well for don't bettors; that is a social difference at a crowded table and no difference at all in the arithmetic.

The odds bet, the one bet without an edge

Once a point is set, a player with a pass or come bet may add "odds" behind it, a bet paid at the "true odds" of the point against the seven: 2 to 1 on 4 and 10, 3 to 2 on 5 and 9, 6 to 5 on 6 and 8. Its house edge is zero, a rare thing in a casino, and each table caps it at a multiple of the line bet (stated in its rules).

The odds do not lower the edge of the line bet; they dilute it. With $10 on the line and $20 in odds whenever a point is set, our player still loses 14 cents a round on average, but on a larger stake, since the odds add money that carries no edge. The edge on the total wagered falls to 0.61 per cent with double odds, 0.37 with "3-4-5 times" odds and 0.18 with ten times.

At 100 rolls an hour the pass line is decided about 30 times (a round lasts 3.38 rolls on average), so that our player stakes about $296 on the line and loses about $4.19 an hour, whatever sits in the odds. We consider the odds the best bet on the table, and the line bet the ticket that buys the right to make it.

Place bets, the field and the big 6

A "place bet" on a number wins if that number comes before a seven, and it is paid at less than the true odds. The 6 and the 8 pay 7 to 6 against true odds of 6 to 5, an edge of 1.52 per cent; the 5 and the 9 pay 7 to 5 (4.00 per cent), and the 4 and the 10 pay 9 to 5 (6.67 per cent).

The "big 6" and "big 8" win on the same rolls as the place bet but pay even money: 9.09 per cent instead of 1.52! The "field" wins on seven totals (2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12) and loses on four, but the four losing totals (5, 6, 7 and 8) account for 20 of the 36 combinations, and the bet keeps 5.56 per cent when the 12 pays double and 2.78 per cent when it pays triple.

The centre of the table

Then the numbers grow. The middle of the layout holds the "proposition bets", and the "hardways" among them bet that a 4, 6, 8 or 10 will come as a pair (two 2s, two 3s and so on) before it comes any other way or a seven appears, keeping 9.09 per cent on hard 6 and 8 and 11.11 per cent on hard 4 and 10.

Among the one-roll bets, which are settled on the very next throw, "any craps" (2, 3 or 12) and the 3 or the 11 at 15 to 1 keep 11.11 per cent, the 2 or the 12 at 30 to 1 keep 13.89 per cent, and "any seven", paid 4 to 1 on a chance of one in six, keeps 16.67 per cent. Wording matters as well, because "30 for 1" counts the stake in the thirty, which makes it 29 to 1 and an edge of 16.67 per cent.

The bets of craps, cheapest first (house edge per bet settled)

Bet	Pays	House edge
Odds behind pass or come	2 to 1 on 4 and 10, 3 to 2 on 5 and 9, 6 to 5 on 6 and 8	0.00%
Don't pass, don't come (12 is a push)	1 to 1	1.36%
Pass line, come	1 to 1	1.41%
Place 6 or 8	7 to 6	1.52%
Field, 12 paying 3 to 1	1 to 1, 2 to 1 on the 2	2.78%
Place 5 or 9	7 to 5	4.00%
Field, 12 paying 2 to 1	1 to 1, 2 to 1 on the 2 and the 12	5.56%
Place 4 or 10	9 to 5	6.67%
Big 6, big 8	1 to 1	9.09%
Hard 6, hard 8	9 to 1	9.09%
Hard 4, hard 10	7 to 1	11.11%
Any craps (one roll)	7 to 1	11.11%
3 or 11 (one roll)	15 to 1	11.11%
Horn: 2, 3, 11 and 12 (one roll)	30 to 1 on 2 and 12, 15 to 1 on 3 and 11	12.50%
2 or 12 (one roll)	30 to 1	13.89%
Any seven (one roll)	4 to 1	16.67%

Our player who puts $10 on any seven at every one of the 100 rolls stakes $1,000 an hour, and the expected loss is about $167, forty times the cost of an hour on the pass line (about $4.19)! The proposition bets are cheap to place and quick to settle, and in our view that speed is exactly what makes them the most expensive part of your evening.

Dice in software and dice in a studio

An "RNG" craps game draws each roll from a random number generator, and a live one films real dice thrown in a studio; the arithmetic is the same, because it comes from the 36 combinations and not from the hand that throws them. The help screen is still worth reading before you bet, since it is where a table says whether the field pays double or triple on the 12, what the proposition bets pay and how far the odds can go.

The dice have no memory. For the same reason "dice control" (the claim that a trained throw can favour some totals) has no object online, where the player throws nothing, and the betting systems that raise or lower the stake after each decision redistribute the losses without reducing them.

A live table rolls more slowly than software, which lowers the cost per hour without touching the edge per bet (a studio table is described on our live casino page), while the house edge page ranks craps against roulette, blackjack and the rest. If you want the long rolls and the noise of the table, the pass line with odds provides them at the lowest price that the layout allows.

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By the Rand Casinos editorial team · Last updated October 2026 · Online since 2007