How to Play Craps: Rules, Bets and the Real Odds

Craps is a two-dice game where almost every round hangs on one question: will the shooter roll a chosen number again before a 7 shows up? Learn the pass line, the odds bet and the come bet and you can play any craps table, online or live. Everything else on the layout is optional, and most of it is expensive.

This page walks through a round step by step, then prices every common bet from the 36 ways two dice can land. Sit down at a table with the numbers in hand rather than the superstition.

Two dice, 36 outcomes: the only maths craps needs

Each die has six faces, so a pair can land 36 different ways. Totals are not equally likely. A 7 can be made six ways (1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4, each in two orders), while 2 and 12 can each be made only one way. Craps is built on that imbalance.

• 7: 6 ways, so one roll in six on average.
• 6 and 8: 5 ways each.
• 5 and 9: 4 ways each.
• 4 and 10: 3 ways each.
• 3 and 11: 2 ways each.
• 2 and 12: 1 way each.

Once a point is set, only two totals matter for a line bet: the point and the 7. Everything else is a non-event for that bet. So the chance of winning is simply the ways to make the point divided by the ways to make the point or a 7. That single idea explains the payouts on the odds bet, place bets and hardways below.

How a round of craps plays out

Step 1: the come-out roll

A new round starts with the come-out roll. Before it, players choose a side: the pass line backs the shooter, while don’t pass bets against them. On the come-out:

• A 7 or 11 (8 ways out of 36, about 22.2%) wins for pass and loses for don’t pass.
• Rolling 2, 3 or 12 (4 ways, about 11.1%) is “craps”: pass loses. Don’t pass wins on 2 and 3, while 12 is usually a push on the don’t side, which is what “bar 12” printed on the layout means.
• The remaining totals, everything from 4 to 10 except 7 (24 ways, about 66.7%), set the point.

Step 2: the point phase

With a point set, the dealer marks it with an “On” puck (on screen, a highlighted number). The shooter keeps rolling. Should the point come again before a 7, pass bets win and don’t pass bets lose. If a 7 arrives first, the shooter “sevens out”: pass loses, don’t pass wins, and the dice pass to the next shooter. Rolls of other numbers do nothing to line bets, though they settle other wagers on the table.

Step 3: the next come-out

After the point is made or the shooter sevens out, the puck goes back to “Off” and a fresh come-out begins. Online tables run this cycle automatically: you get a betting window, the roll happens, and the software or the dealer settles everything.

On average a pass line bet takes about 3.4 rolls to resolve, according to the Wizard of Odds. That number matters later, because it is why a slow-resolving bet with a low edge costs you less per hour than a one-roll bet with a high edge.

Pass and don’t pass: the two line bets

The pass line pays even money. Adding up the come-out wins and the chance of making each point gives a win probability of 244 in 495, roughly 49.29%. That leaves a house edge of 1.41%, which is low by casino standards and the reason the pass line is the default bet for new players.

Don’t pass is the mirror image, with one tweak. Without the barred 12 the don’t side would have the edge over the casino, so the casino turns a 12 on the come-out into a tie. Result: the casino keeps roughly 1.36% of each don’t pass wager, a shade less than on pass. Many players avoid it for social reasons at land tables, since it wins when everyone else loses, but online nobody notices which side you take.

One practical difference: once a point is set, a pass bet cannot be taken down, because it is now the favourite to lose. A don’t pass bet can be removed after the point, but doing so throws away your advantage, since a 7 is now more likely than the point.

The odds bet: the zero-edge part of craps

After a point is set, line bettors may add an “odds” bet behind their pass or don’t pass wager. It pays true odds, so the casino has no edge on it at all. That is unusual in a casino and the single most useful fact in craps.

Tables cap how much odds you may take, expressed as a multiple of the line bet. “3-4-5x odds” is a common limit: 3x when the point is 4 or 10, 4x for a 5 or 9, 5x for a 6 or 8. The design is neat, since a winning odds bet then always pays six times the line bet whatever the point.

Because the odds part carries no edge, more odds dilutes the 1.41% on the line bet. Per the Wizard of Odds, pass plus 3-4-5x odds works out to roughly 0.37% of everything wagered. Higher limits push the combined figure closer to zero, but they also push your total stake per round up sharply, so only take odds you can afford to lose.

Worked example: pass line with 4x odds on a 9

Say you put 10 USDT on the pass line and the shooter’s come-out shows 9. Under 3-4-5x limits you can back it with up to 40 USDT in odds. Your total risk is now 50 USDT.

• A 9 before a 7: the line pays 10 USDT, the odds pay 3 to 2, which is 60 USDT. You collect 70 USDT profit.
• A 7 before a 9: both bets lose, 50 USDT.

Your chance of the 9 arriving first is 40%. Over many such rounds the odds portion breaks even and the only cost is the edge on the 10 USDT line bet.

Come and don’t come bets

Think of a come bet as a fresh pass line wager made while a point is already on. Its own come-out is simply the following roll: 7 or 11 wins it, 2, 3 or 12 loses it, and any point number becomes its own “come point”, which the dealer moves to that number’s box. It then wins if that number repeats before a 7. Don’t come works the same way for the don’t side, with 12 barred.

Come and don’t come carry the same edges as pass and don’t pass (1.41% and 1.36%) and you may add odds to them too. Players use them to have several numbers working at once without paying the higher edges of place bets.

One quirk: in many casinos the odds on a come bet are “off” on the come-out roll unless you ask for them to work, while the come bet itself stays live. Online games show this as a toggle or state it in the help screen.

Place, buy and lay bets

Place bets let you back a number directly, without waiting for a come-out. You win if that number rolls before a 7. The casino pays less than true odds, which is where its edge comes from.

• 6 or 8: 7 to 6 against true odds of 6 to 5, an edge of 1.52%.
• 5 or 9: 7 to 5 against true odds of 3 to 2, an edge of 4.00%.
• 4 or 10: 9 to 5 against true odds of 2 to 1, an edge of 6.67%.

Buy bets pay true odds but charge a 5% commission. On the 4 or 10 that is a better deal than placing, especially where the commission is taken only when the bet wins: the edge drops to 1.67%. Paid up front, the same buy bet carries 4.76%. Buying the 5, 6, 8 or 9 is rarely worth it, since the place bet is already cheaper or close.

Lay bets are the reverse: you bet a 7 will come before the number, receive true odds and pay 5% of the win as commission. Charged up front, the edge is 2.44% on 4 or 10, 3.23% on 5 or 9 and 4.00% on 6 or 8. A lay bet risks more than it wins, for example 40 to win 20 against the 4.

Worked example: placing the 6 versus buying the 4

Picture 12 mBTC placed on the 6. If a 6 lands before a 7 you win 14 mBTC (7 to 6). Your chance is 5 in 11, about 45.5%, so the average result per bet is a loss of about 0.18 mBTC, or 1.52% of the stake.

Now take 20 mBTC buying the 4 with commission only on a win. A win pays 40 mBTC at true 2 to 1, minus a 1 mBTC commission (5% of the bet), so 39 mBTC net. With a one-in-three chance, the average loss is about 0.33 mBTC per bet, or 1.67% of the stake. Placing the 4 for the same 20 mBTC would win just 36 mBTC and cost 6.67% on average.

Field, big 6 and big 8

The field wins on the next roll if the total is 2 to 4 or 9 to 12. Sixteen of the 36 combinations win, which looks attractive until you count the 20 that lose: 5, 6, 7 and 8 are the most common totals on the dice. When the field pays double on 2 and 12, the edge is 5.56%. Pay triple on the 12 and it falls to 2.78%; read the layout or help screen to see which version you have.

Big 6 and big 8 pay even money if that number lands before a 7. It is the same event as a place bet on the 6 or 8, paid at 1 to 1 instead of 7 to 6, so the edge jumps to 9.09%. Many modern tables have dropped these spots; where they exist, the place bet is always the better way to back the same number.

Hardways

A hardway bet wins if its number shows as matching dice (double 2, double 3, double 4 or double 5) before it shows any other way and before a 7. Hard 6 and hard 8 pay 9 to 1. Only one of 11 relevant combinations wins (the pair, against four “easy” ways and six sevens), so the edge is 9.09%. Hard 4 and hard 10 pay 7 to 1 with one winning combination out of nine relevant ones: 11.11%.

Hardways stay on the table until they win or lose, and on many tables they are “off” during the come-out by default. They are fun in small amounts. As a core bet they cost several times what the pass line costs.

One-roll proposition bets

The centre of the layout holds bets settled on the very next roll. They pay big numbers on small chances and carry the highest edges in craps:

• Any seven pays 4 to 1 against a 1-in-6 chance: 16.67%.
• Any craps returns 7 to 1 if the roll is a 2, 3 or 12, which has 4 ways in 36: 11.11%.
• Eleven (“yo”) and ace-deuce (3) each pay 15 to 1 against 2 ways in 36: 11.11%.
• Aces (2) or boxcars (12) pay 30 to 1 against 1 way in 36: 13.89%.
• Horn splits one stake over 2, 3, 11 and 12; its edge is 12.5% on the usual paytable.
• C and E combines any craps and eleven: 11.11%.

Some tables write the payouts as “for 1” rather than “to 1”. “5 for 1” includes your stake in the return, so it equals 4 to 1. Read the label: 30 for 1 on aces is worse than 30 to 1.

Every main bet ranked by cost

The table sorts the bets by expected loss for every 100 units you stake. It assumes the standard payouts listed above; a different paytable changes the result.

Edge per bet is not the whole story. A one-roll bet resolves every roll, while a pass bet takes about 3.4 rolls. Bet 5 USDT on any seven every roll for 100 rolls and you put 500 USDT through a 16.67% edge, an average loss of about 83 USDT. Spread the same 100 rolls over pass line bets of 5 USDT and you make roughly 30 decisions, about 150 USDT in action, with an average loss near 2 USDT.

A simple low-cost way to play

No betting system changes the edge of a single wager, and the dice have no memory of previous rolls. What you can control is which bets you make. A low-cost routine looks like this:

1. Start each come-out with a pass or don’t pass wager.
2. When a point is set, add as much odds as your budget comfortably allows.
3. If you want more action, add one or two come bets with odds rather than place bets on 4, 5, 9 or 10.
4. Place the 6 and 8 if you like having them working; skip the centre of the table.
5. Decide in dollars or euros what the session may cost, and stop once it has.

Progressions such as Martingale only rearrange when losses happen. A run of sevens on a doubling system hits the table maximum or your bankroll limit quickly, and the 1.41% is still charged on every bet along the way.

Craps online and with crypto

Online craps comes in two forms. Software craps uses a random number generator to produce each roll and settles in a second or two, so you can play at your own pace and usually try it in demo mode. Live craps streams a dealer and physical dice; Evolution’s live Craps table went live in November 2020, with bets settled after each camera-verified roll.

The rules and edges above apply to both. Speed is the real difference: an RNG table can run far more rolls in an hour than a studio table, so the same bet costs more per hour online simply because you make more of them.

Crypto changes the cashier, not the game. A few things are worth knowing:

• Display currency. Many casinos show table limits in USD or EUR and convert your coin balance, so a 1 USD minimum may be a fraction of a mBTC that moves with the price.
• Price swings. A coin can move more in a day than the house edge costs you in a session. Holding USDT or another stablecoin avoids that if you judge results in dollars.
• Bonuses. Table games often count for little or nothing towards wagering. Read the contribution table before accepting a bonus you plan to clear on craps.
• Fair play checks. Studio craps is tested by labs for the casino’s licence, but it is not “provably fair” the way in-house crypto dice is. Prefer a game whose every result you can check yourself? See how provably fair dice works.

We have not listed a casino on this page because we could not confirm a craps table in the lobbies of the casinos we review. Check the live or table games section of any site in our dice casino reviews before you deposit. If what you want is the classic one-die-roll crypto game, our guide to how to play Bitcoin dice covers it, and the dice strategy page explains why no system beats the edge.

Craps compared with other dice games

Craps uses two dice and many bets that last several rolls. Sic bo uses three dice, settles everything in one roll and has a best bet (small or big) at 2.78%, about twice the pass line. Crypto dice uses a single random number with a chosen target and typically a 1% edge, so it is cheaper than most craps bets but more expensive than pass with full odds. For dice games with no money involved at all, try Yahtzee or Farkle.

Craps is gambling and every bet except the odds has a built-in loss rate. Players must be 18 or older (21 in some places). Set limits before you play, and if it stops being fun, our safer gambling page lists free help, including Gamblers Anonymous and Gambling Therapy.

Craps questions players ask

How long does a round of craps last?

A pass line bet takes about 3.4 rolls on average to win or lose. A shooter’s turn lasts until they seven out, which can be a single roll after the point or dozens of rolls on a hot streak.

Why is a 12 a push on the don’t pass bar?

Without the barred 12, a don’t pass bettor would have a small edge over the casino. Turning the 12 into a tie on the come-out roll gives the house about 1.36% instead.

What does 3-4-5x odds mean?

It caps the odds you can add: up to 3x the line bet behind a 4 or 10, 4x behind a 5 or 9 and 5x behind a 6 or 8. A winning odds bet then pays six times the line bet on any point.

Can a 7 lose on the come-out roll?

Only for don’t pass and don’t come bets. On the come-out a 7 wins for pass and come bettors. After a point is set, a 7 loses for pass bettors and wins for the don’t side.

Is software craps less fair than real dice?

The probabilities are the same if the random number generator is fair and tested, which licensing labs check. What changes is speed: software settles many more rolls per hour, so your total action and average loss grow faster.

Which craps bets should a beginner skip?

Skip the one-roll centre bets (any seven, any craps, aces, boxcars, horn), big 6 and big 8, and place bets on 4 and 10. Pass or don’t pass with odds, come bets and placing the 6 or 8 cost far less.