Walk up to a craps table for the first time and you’ll see a board covered in bets with numbers like 7:1, 30:1, and 2:1 printed in garish colors. Most of them are traps. A few are among the best bets in the entire casino. Knowing which is which starts with understanding how craps odds and payouts actually work.
True Odds vs. Casino Payouts
Every craps bet has two numbers worth knowing: the true probability of winning, and what the casino actually pays you if you do. The gap between those two figures is the house edge. For example, the true odds of rolling a 7 before a 6 or 8 are 6:5 — meaning for every five times you’d win, you’d expect to lose six. But the casino pays you even money (1:1) on the Place bet for 6 or 8, which is why that bet carries a 1.52% house edge. Compared to slot machines, that’s generous. Compared to the free Odds bet, it’s not.
The Pass Line: Where to Begin
The Pass Line bet is the foundation of craps. You win immediately if the come-out roll is 7 or 11; you lose on 2, 3, or 12. Any other number becomes the “point,” and you win if it repeats before a 7. The house edge on Pass is 1.41% — not amazing, but honest. The Don’t Pass bet flips that logic (you win on 2 and 3, push on 12, lose on 7 or 11) and carries a marginally lower house edge of 1.36%. Both are reasonable starting points.
The Odds Bet: The Only Zero-Edge Bet in the Casino
Once a point is established, you can back your Pass Line bet with an Odds bet — and this one pays at true odds with no house edge whatsoever. If the point is 4 or 10, the Odds bet pays 2:1. For a point of 5 or 9, it pays 3:2. For 6 or 8, it pays 6:5. Casinos limit how much you can take in Odds — commonly 2x, 3-4-5x, or 10x your Pass Line wager. Taking maximum odds is one of the best moves in the building: it dilutes the overall house edge on your combined bet considerably. At 3-4-5x odds, the combined edge drops to roughly 0.37%.
Come and Don’t Come Bets
Come bets work identically to Pass Line bets — except you place them after the point is established. They create their own mini-game within the hand, with the next roll acting as their personal come-out. If you roll a 9 on a Come bet, you need another 9 before a 7 to collect. You can also back Come bets with Odds, which carry the same zero-edge structure. Don’t Come mirrors Don’t Pass in the same way.
Place Bets: Convenient but Costly
Place bets let you bet directly on a number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10) hitting before a 7, without going through the come-out roll process. They pay at fixed rates rather than true odds. The 6 and 8 pay 7:6 (house edge 1.52%), which is solid. The 5 and 9 pay 7:5 (house edge 4%), which is less so. The 4 and 10 pay 9:5 (house edge 6.67%), which you should largely avoid. Note: place bets are typically “off” on come-out rolls by default — confirm with the dealer if you want them working.
The Proposition Bets: High Payout, High Cost
The center of the table is covered in single-roll proposition bets with flashy payouts. Any 7 pays 4:1. Hard 8 (two fours) pays 9:1. Any Craps pays 7:1. These look exciting. Their house edges run from about 9% to over 16%. The Field bet — which wins on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12 — looks appealing because it covers so many numbers, but it still carries a house edge of roughly 5.5% in most casinos (lower in rooms that pay 3:1 on 12). Treat the props as entertainment, not strategy.
Buy Bets: The Better Alternative on 4 and 10
Buy bets are similar to Place bets but pay at true odds, with the casino collecting a 5% commission on the winnings. On the 4 and 10, a Buy bet reduces the house edge from 6.67% to about 4.76% — a meaningful improvement. In some casinos, the commission is only charged on wins, not on placement, which makes Buy bets on 4 and 10 even more favorable. Worth asking the dealer before you place.
Reading the Table Quickly
A practical shorthand: stick to Pass/Don’t Pass, take or lay full Odds, and consider Place bets on 6 and 8 if you want more action. The more a bet’s payout differs from its true odds, the more it costs you per hour of play. Once you internalize that gap for each section of the table, the layout stops looking chaotic and starts looking like a map — with a few well-lit exits and a lot of dead ends.