How to play
Craps is played with two dice. A round starts with a come-out roll and may take several rolls to finish.
- Come-out roll. Bet on the Pass Line (or Don’t Pass) and press Roll.
- 7 or 11: Pass Line wins, Don’t Pass loses.
- 2, 3 or 12 (“craps”): Pass Line loses. Don’t Pass wins on 2 or 3; on 12 it’s a push.
- 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 becomes the point. The puck shows “Point” and the number.
- Point rolls. Keep rolling. If the point comes again before a 7, Pass Line wins and Don’t Pass loses. If a 7 comes first (“seven-out”), Pass Line loses and Don’t Pass wins. Then a new come-out roll starts.
Pick a chip and tap a bet to add it; new bets show as “+amount” until you roll. Undo takes back your last chip, and Take down returns your place and odds bets to your credits between rolls.
The bets.
| Bet | When | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Pass Line / Don’t Pass | come-out roll only | 1:1 (Don’t Pass pushes on 12) |
| Pass Odds | after a point, up to 3× your Pass Line on 4/10, 4× on 5/9, 5× on 6/8 | 2:1 on 4/10, 3:2 on 5/9, 6:5 on 6/8 |
| Lay Odds | after a point, up to 6× your Don’t Pass | 1:2 on 4/10, 2:3 on 5/9, 5:6 on 6/8 |
| Place 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 | any time; wins if the number comes before a 7 | 9:5 on 4/10, 7:5 on 5/9, 7:6 on 6/8 |
| Field | one roll: 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12 | 1:1, but 2 pays 2:1 and 12 pays 3:1 |
| Any 7 | one roll: 7 | 4:1 |
| Any Craps | one roll: 2, 3 or 12 | 7:1 |
Place bets are “off” on the come-out roll: they don’t win or lose on it. A place bet that wins is paid and stays up until a 7 or until you take it down. Each bet is from 10 to 1,000 credits, which also caps the odds (for example, a 250 Pass Line on a point of 6 or 8 allows 1,000 in odds, not 1,250). Place and Lay Odds bets come in steps of 30, so every payout is a whole number of credits. This game doesn’t have Come, Don’t Come or hardway bets.
Strategy
The dice can’t be influenced, but the house edge varies a lot between bets. Calculated exactly from the dice probabilities:
| Bet | House edge |
|---|---|
| Pass Odds / Lay Odds | 0% |
| Don’t Pass | 1.36% |
| Pass Line | 1.41% |
| Place 6 or 8 | 1.52% |
| Field | 2.78% |
| Place 5 or 9 | 4.00% |
| Place 4 or 10 | 6.67% |
| Any Craps | 11.11% |
| Any 7 | 16.67% |
- Bet the Pass Line and take the maximum odds. The odds bet pays exactly what it’s worth, so the more of your action is in odds, the lower your overall house edge.
- Don’t Pass is slightly better than Pass, but you’re betting against the shooter, and lay odds risk more to win less.
- If you place numbers, stick to 6 and 8. Their edge is close to the line bets; 4 and 10 cost more than four times as much.
- Skip the one-roll proposition bets. Any 7 and Any Craps have the highest house edges on the table.
- No betting system changes the odds. Each roll is independent.
Other dice games. Sic Bo uses three dice and many bets; its Big and Small bets have a 2.78% house edge. Chuck-a-luck is a simpler three-dice game.
If you enjoy Craps, try Crazy Pineapple or Crown and Anchor next.
