Crown and Anchor is an old favourite of British sailors and of fairground stalls. The equipment was simple enough to carry in a sea chest: a cloth printed with six symbols and three dice with the same six symbols on their faces. This is that game, with virtual credits instead of pennies: back a symbol, roll three dice, and get paid for every die that shows it.
How to play
The symbols. Each die has six faces: a Crown, an Anchor, and the four card suits, Heart, Diamond, Club and Spade. The betting board shows the same six.
Betting. Pick a chip and tap one or more symbols to put chips on them. Each symbol takes 10 to 1,000 credits, in tens, and the total on the board can be up to 5,000. Undo removes the last chip, Clear removes them all, and Rebet repeats the previous roll’s bets.
Rolling. Press Roll. Three dice tumble across the table and settle.
Payouts. For each symbol you bet on, count how many of the three dice show it.
| Dice showing your symbol | Result |
|---|---|
| three | wins 3 to 1 |
| two | wins 2 to 1 |
| one | wins 1 to 1 |
| none | bet lost |
Your stake comes back with any win. For example, 20 credits on the Anchor with a roll of anchor, anchor, club pays 40 in winnings plus the 20 you staked, while a 20-credit bet on the Club in the same roll wins 20.
The odds
All 216 possible rolls of three dice can be counted. For any one symbol:
| Your symbol appears | Rolls (of 216) | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| on no dice | 125 | 57.87% |
| on exactly one | 75 | 34.72% |
| on exactly two | 15 | 6.94% |
| on all three | 1 | 0.46% |
So a bet wins something 91 times in 216, about 42% of the time. A common mistake is to think “three dice, each with a 1 in 6 chance, makes 1 in 2”. It doesn’t, because the dice often double up on the same symbol, and those doubles are exactly where the house earns its edge.
Add up what a 1-credit bet returns over all 216 rolls: 75 wins of 1, 15 wins of 2, one win of 3, and 125 losses of 1. That comes to −17. The house keeps 17 credits of every 216 bet, a house edge of 7.87%, and it is the same on every symbol.
Here is the intuition. Picture one credit on each of the six symbols. If all three dice differ, three bets win 1 each and three lose 1 each: no profit either way. When two dice match, one bet wins 2, one wins 1, and four lose, so the house is 1 ahead. Three of a kind: one bet wins 3, five lose, and the house is 2 ahead. The doubles and triples are the whole edge.
Strategy
There is no clever bet in Crown and Anchor. The symbols are all equal, the edge is identical on each, and every roll is independent.
Spreading chips doesn’t help the edge. Betting on three symbols makes it likely that at least one wins, but you are paying 7.87% on each bet. Covering all six guarantees a small loss whenever a symbol repeats.
Expect wins to feel common but small. Most wins are 1 to 1. A triple on your symbol shows up only once in 216 rolls.
Forget hot and cold symbols. The game’s dice have no memory. A symbol missing for ten rolls has exactly the same chances on the eleventh.
Choose your bet size for the session. At a 7.87% edge, credits drain faster here than at baccarat or blackjack. Smaller bets make a balance last longer; that is all betting size can do.
Crown and Anchor’s numbered cousin is Chuck-a-luck, which pays the same way on numbers 1 to 6. For a table with dozens of three-dice bets, see Sic Bo.
If you enjoy Crown and Anchor, try Darts Multiplier or Dealer Bust 21 next.
