The House Edge According to The Odds Offered
The norm in a game of Craps is to have minimum single odds, but once at the table casinos can then decide whether they want to offer more odds or not. Generally speaking, the lower the minimum Pass Line bet, the lower odds you can expect from the casino. Assuming you make full odds and depending on the odds offered, here is the house edge on Pass Line bets:
| No odds (pass line only) | 1.41% |
| 1x odds | 0.85% |
| 2x odds | 0.61% |
| 5x odds | 0.32% |
| 10x odds | 0.18% |
| 100x odds | 0.02% |
The odds aren’t against you so betting on them doesn’t actually increase your chances of winning your roll, however they’re neither on your side. You would want odds because on the Pass Line bet when the odds are actually against you, it allows you to put less money down.
Here is a very straight forward example – let’s assume you’re comfortable at betting $10 per round. This can be done by betting $10 every time on the Pass Line without taking any odds. But, if the casino offers double odds, you could put $2.50 on the pass line and $7.50 on the odds, for a total of $10. This would bring down your anticipated losses by 0.5. Then on average you’ll make about 30 Pass Line bets every hour, which is useful knowledge if you’re trying to calculate your expected losses during a Craps session.
Laying The Odds or Making The Odds
This would be the complete opposite of what we talked about in the Extra Round, here you are betting that a 7 will be rolled before ‘The Point’, have a look at the examples below.
| New Round | Win: 7 or 11 Lose: 2, 3, 12 Set a Point: 4,5,6,8,9,10 |
| 7 | You win! New round begins with same shooter. |
| New Round | Win: 7 or 11 Lose: 2, 3, 12 Set a Point: 4,5,6,8,9,10 |
| 12 | You lose. New round begins with same shooter. |
| New Round | Win: 7 or 11 Lose: 2, 3, 12 Set a Point: 4,5,6,8,9,10 |
| 4 | Point is set. Marker is moved onto the 4. You place your Odds bet below your Pass Line bet. You win both bets if a 4 is rolled again before a 7. |
| Point is set: Win: 4 Lose: 7 Doesn’t Matter: Everything else | |
| 6 | No effect |
| 3 | No effect |
| 10 | No effect |
| 4 | You win both bets! Marker is moved back to the side. New round begins with same shooter. |
| New Round | Win: 7 or 11 Lose: 2, 3, 12 Create a Point: 4,5,6,8,9,10 |
| 3 | You lose. Dice pass to the next shooter. |
| New Round | Win: 7 or 11 Lose: 2, 3, 12 Create a Point: 4,5,6,8,9,10 |
| 11 | You win! New round begins with same shooter. |
| New Round | Win: 7 or 11 Lose: 2, 3, 12 Create a Point: 4,5,6,8,9,10 |
| 8 | Point is set. Marker is moved onto the 8. You place your Odds bet below your Pass Line bet. You win both bets if an 8 is rolled again before a 7. |
| Point is set: Win: 8 Lose: 7 Doesn’t Matter: Everything else | |
| 4 | No effect. |
| 6 | No effect. |
| 4 | No effect. |
| 4 | No effect. |
| 11 | No effect. |
| 10 | No effect. |
| 7 | You lose both bets. Marker is moved back to the side. New round begins with new shooter. |
Odds Bets Pay Great Odds
An Odds Bet is much better than any Pass Line bet because the winning amount will be decided according to which point you happen to bet on, not like the ‘Pass Line’ bet that will pay the same amount that you have already staked ($5 wins $5). Once a Lay Bet is placed on any of the following numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, and if the number 7 is rolled before your chosen number, you’ll win. This happens because the most likely number to be rolled would be the 7, so in this instance you should bet more than you can win.
Here you will have to pay a 4% commission on your winnings and you will get fair odds on the bet. Fair odds would be 1:2 on dice rolls 4 & 10, 2:3 on dice rolls 5 & 9, and 5:6 on dice rolls 6 & 8. You can also look at it as a paying bet of 12:25 on the 4 & 10, a paying bet of 16:25 on the 5 & 9, and a paying bet 12:15 on the 6 & 8.
| Point bet on | Odds Bet payout | Example |
| 4 or 10 | 2:1 | $10 bet wins $20 |
| 5 or 9 | 3:2 | $10 bet wins $15 |
| 6 or 8 | 6:5 | $10 bet wins $12 |
“Almost all life depends on probabilities.”
Francois Voltaire
