Craps Odds, Payouts and House Edge

A bet's true odds are the ways it loses set against the ways it wins, so every price below starts from the ways column. Each total's chance per roll, as a percentage, is on how to play craps.

A house edge is an average loss divided by something, and craps offers three reasonable things to divide by. Each gives a correct figure. They answer different questions, which is why two honest lists can print different numbers for the same bet.

Per bet made. The average loss divided by the money you put down. This answers: each time I make this bet, what share of it do I give up on average? It is the figure most lists print, and the one this site means by "house edge" unless it says otherwise.

Per bet resolved. The same loss, divided only over the rounds where the bet actually won or lost. It differs from the first figure only on a bet that can push. Don't pass is the example: a come-out 12 neither wins nor loses, so it has a per-bet edge of 1.36% and a per-resolved edge of 1.40%. For pass, which never pushes, both are 1.41%.

Per roll. The average loss spread over the number of rolls the bet stays on the table. This answers: while this bet sits there, what does it cost me for each throw of the dice? A pass line bet lasts 3.3758 rolls on average, so its 1.41% per bet becomes 0.42% per roll. A one-roll bet such as the field is settled on the next throw, so all three of its figures are the same.

Per bet tells you how good a bet is. Per roll tells you how fast a session costs money, because a table moves at the pace of the dice, not the pace of your decisions. A bet that waits many rolls for an answer looks cheap per roll even when it is poor value per bet, so compare bets with the per-bet figure and think about a session with the per-roll one.

Sorted by the edge per bet made. The per-roll column answers a different question — what the bet costs for each throw it spends on the table — and is why a bet that waits for its answer can look cheap on that basis. Pays are the usual table prices; a table that prints different ones has different edges, and the sections below show the common alternatives side by side.

The pass line wins on a come-out 7 or 11 and loses on 2, 3 or 12. Any other total becomes the point, and the bet then wins if the point is rolled again before a 7. It pays even money and wins 49.29% of the time, for an edge of 1.41% per bet and 0.42% per roll.

Don't pass is the mirror image with one exception: the come-out 12 is a push rather than a win, which is what gives the house its margin on that side. It wins 47.93% of rounds, loses 49.29% and pushes the rest. The edge is 1.36% per bet made, 1.40% per bet resolved, and 0.40% per roll — slightly lower than the pass line on every basis.

Come and don't come are the same two bets started in the middle of a round. The next roll is their own come-out, so their figures are exactly the pass and don't pass figures above. They let you have more than one point working at a time, which multiplies the money in action without changing the edge on any of it.

Once a point is set, a line bettor may add a second bet behind the first: the odds. It is the only bet in a casino paid at exactly its true price, so it carries no house edge on any basis — not per bet, not per roll. On the pass side you take the odds and win more than you risk on the hard points; on the don't side you lay the odds and risk more than you win, because by then the 7 is the favourite.

What the odds bet does not do is lower what you expect to lose. The flat line bet under it still costs its 1.41%, every round. Adding odds puts more money on the table at no extra cost, so the edge as a share of all the money staked falls, and it falls a long way at high multiples. The average amount lost per round stays where it was. What rises is the swing: bigger wins, bigger losses, same expected result.

That is still a good trade for anyone who wants to put a given amount of money on the table: moving it from the flat bet to the odds is the only way in craps to stake more without paying more. It is a poor trade for anyone who would not otherwise have staked the extra money.

Both columns are true odds, so neither side of the odds bet carries any edge. The rolls column counts from the moment the point is set.

Read the loss columns first: they do not move. Every row loses the same amount per round on average, because the odds add stake without adding cost. The edge columns fall only because the same loss is divided by more money. All figures are per bet (per round), assuming the full odds are taken on every point.

A 3-4-5x table lets you take three times your flat bet in odds on 4 or 10, four times on 5 or 9 and five times on 6 or 8. The limits look uneven on purpose. Because the odds pay less on the easier points, those three limits make the odds win the same on every point: 6 times the flat bet, whichever point was set. It keeps the payouts simple and caps the table's exposure evenly.

On the don't side the same table is usually read by what you can win, not what you can lay. Laying odds means risking more than you win, so the cap is expressed as a win of up to that same multiple of the flat bet: in practice, a lay of up to 6 times the flat bet on any point. On a straight 2x table, by contrast, the lay needed to win twice the flat bet is 4 times the flat on 4 or 10, 3 times on 5 or 9 and 2.4 times on 6 or 8. The don't-side rows in the table above use that same convention.

Online tables print their maximum odds in the rules or help screen, and the figure varies between games. It is the one rule that most changes the combined figures above, so it is worth reading before the first roll.

A place bet backs one number to be rolled before a 7, at a price slightly below true odds: 7:6 on 6 and 8, 7:5 on 5 and 9, 9:5 on 4 and 10. Placing the 6 or 8 costs 1.52% per bet and 0.46% per roll, which puts it right beside the pass line. The 5 and 9 cost 4.00%, and the 4 and 10 cost 6.67% per bet.

A buy bet is the same wager paid at true odds in exchange for a 5% commission. When the commission is only taken on a win, buying the 4 or 10 costs 3.33% per bet against 6.67% for placing it, so buying is clearly better there. Buying the 5 or 9 on the same terms costs 3.00%, also below the place bet. Buying the 6 or 8 costs 2.73%, worse than simply placing them at 1.52%. Where the commission is charged up front on every bet, whether it wins or not, every buy bet costs 5.00% of the wager (or 4.76% of the wager plus commission), and buying stops beating placing anywhere except the 4 and 10.

A lay bet is the reverse: a bet that the 7 comes before a chosen number, paid at true odds less a 5% commission on the amount won. With the commission taken on the win, laying the 4 or 10 costs 1.67% per bet, the 5 or 9 2.00%, and the 6 or 8 2.27%. Taken up front instead, those become 2.50%, 3.33% and 4.17%. Which way the commission is collected is written in each game's rules and is worth checking before either kind of bet.

The field is a one-roll bet on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12, paying even money on the middle totals. It wins less than half the time because the four totals it skips (5, 6, 7 and 8) are the four most common. One extra unit on the 12 halves the edge, so a field figure without its 12 rule is not a figure at all.

Big 6 wins if a 6 is rolled before a 7. So does a place bet on the 6. The only difference is the price: Big 6 pays 1:1, the place bet pays 7:6. Same event, same chance of winning (45.45%), and the edge goes from 1.52% to 9.09% per bet. Big 8 is the same story on the other side.

It is the plainest lesson the layout offers: two boxes for one bet, and the larger, easier one is the expensive one. Where a game offers both, the place bet does the same job for a fraction of the cost.

A hardway bets that a total arrives as a pair — 3-3 for hard 6, 2-2 for hard 4 — before it arrives any other way (the "easy" way) or a 7 turns up. Hard 6 and hard 8 pay 9:1; the pair arrives first 9.09% of the time, which leaves the house 9.09% of each bet. Hard 4 and hard 10 pay 7:1, come in 11.11% of the time and cost 11.11%.

Hardways are a good example of why the per-roll figure alone misleads. Because a hardway can stay up for several rolls, its per-roll edge — 2.78% for hard 6 or 8, 2.78% for hard 4 or 10 — looks modest. Per bet, each one is several times as expensive as a place bet on the same number.

The centre of the layout holds the proposition bets, settled on the very next roll. For these the three edge figures are identical, because the bet lasts exactly one roll. They are also the most expensive area of the table: any craps pays 7:1 for an edge of 11.11%, a 3 or 11 paid 15:1 costs 11.11%, a 2 or 12 paid 30:1 costs 13.89%, and any 7 at 4:1 costs 16.67%.

Check whether a price is quoted "to 1" or "for 1": the second counts your own stake as part of the payout, so it pays a unit less and costs noticeably more, as the FAQ below works out.

The combination bets are made from these parts. The horn spreads one stake across 2, 3, 11 and 12 and costs 12.50% of the whole stake. C and E splits the stake between any craps and 11 and costs 11.11%. A hop bet picks one exact pair of faces for the next roll: a pair of different faces pays 15:1 (11.11%), a named double pays 30:1 (13.89%).

The fire bet is placed before a shooter's first come-out and pays only if that shooter makes four, five or all six different point numbers before sevening out. On this pay table it wins 1.06% of the time and costs 20.76% per bet. That figure belongs to this pay table only: a game printing different prizes has a different edge, so read the game's own table before comparing.

On a crapless table the 2, 3, 11 and 12 become points instead of settling the come-out, and the pass line's price climbs to 5.38%. What else changes, odds and new place bets included, is on the crapless craps page.