Craps Rules Explained: Pass Line, Point and Odds Bets
7 min read
A craps table looks like the most complicated thing in the room. Dozens of boxes, two dice, a crowd shouting at once. Yet the core craps rules fit on a beer mat, and a beginner needs exactly one bet to take part. Learn the two-phase round below and you can ignore most of the layout for good.
Craps rules in two phases
Two dice are thrown and only their total matters. One player, the shooter, rolls for the whole table. Every round opens with the come-out roll. If you have chips on the Pass Line, one of three things happens:
- 7 or 11: you win even money straight away.
- 2, 3 or 12 (“craps”): you lose straight away.
- 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10: that number becomes the point.
Once a point is set, the shooter keeps rolling until either the point comes up again (Pass Line wins) or a 7 appears (Pass Line loses, called a “seven out”). Nothing else affects the Pass Line. Then a new round starts with a fresh come-out roll.
Notice what the 7 does. On the come-out it wins for you; after that it is the number that beats you. That switch is the whole game.
Don’t Pass: betting against the shooter
Don’t Pass is close to a mirror image. On the come-out it wins on 2 or 3, loses on 7 or 11, and a 12 is a push, so your stake comes back. With a point set, Don’t Pass wins if the 7 arrives before the point.
Its house edge is 1.36% against 1.41% for the Pass Line, a difference of five rappen per CHF 100 staked. At a live table it means betting against nearly everyone else. In a demo nobody minds.
The odds bet: a 0% house edge
When a point is established you may place an extra odds bet behind your Pass Line stake. It wins and loses with the Pass Line but pays at the true mathematical odds:
- Point of 4 or 10: 2:1
- Point of 5 or 9: 3:2
- Point of 6 or 8: 6:5
Payout matches probability exactly, so the house has no edge on this bet. That is almost unique on a casino floor, which is also why the layout has no box for it. The catch is that you can only reach it through a Pass Line or Come bet, and those carry the 1.41%. With double odds the edge across your total stake falls to roughly 0.6%. Your expected loss in francs stays the same, though. You are simply moving more money with bigger swings.
On the Don’t Pass side you “lay” odds instead, receiving less than you stake (1:2 on a point of 4 or 10, for example) because you are now the favourite.
Come and Don’t Come
A Come bet is a Pass Line bet made mid-round. The next roll acts as its personal come-out: 7 or 11 wins, 2, 3 or 12 loses, and any other number becomes that bet’s own point. Don’t Come mirrors Don’t Pass. The house edges are identical at 1.41% and 1.36%, and both accept odds.
The main craps bets at a glance
| Bet | Wins on | Payout | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass Line / Come | 7, 11 on the come-out, then point before 7 | 1:1 | 1.41% |
| Don’t Pass / Don’t Come | 2, 3 on the come-out, then 7 before point | 1:1 | 1.36% |
| Odds (behind Pass/Come) | Point before 7 | 2:1, 3:2 or 6:5 | 0% |
| Field | 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12 on the next roll | 1:1, 2:1 on 2 and 12 | approx. 5.56% |
| Hard 6 / Hard 8 | The pair (3-3 or 4-4) before a 7 or an “easy” 6/8 | 9:1 | 9.09% |
| Hard 4 / Hard 10 | The pair (2-2 or 5-5) before a 7 or an “easy” 4/10 | 7:1 | 11.11% |
| Any 7 | 7 on the next roll | 4:1 | 16.67% |
Why proposition bets are a bad deal
The bets in the centre of the table are called proposition bets. They advertise big payouts and most are settled in a single roll. Take Any 7. A 7 turns up 6 times in 36, so a fair price would be 5:1. The table pays 4:1. That one missing unit is a 16.67% house edge.
Put it in francs. A hundred CHF 10 decisions on the Pass Line cost CHF 14.10 on average. A hundred CHF 10 rolls on Any 7 cost CHF 166.70. Same dice, same table, nearly twelve times the price.
Dice probabilities: why the 7 rules
Two dice produce 36 combinations, and the totals are far from equally likely:
| Total | Combinations | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| 2 or 12 | 1 each | 2.78% |
| 3 or 11 | 2 each | 5.56% |
| 4 or 10 | 3 each | 8.33% |
| 5 or 9 | 4 each | 11.11% |
| 6 or 8 | 5 each | 13.89% |
| 7 | 6 | 16.67% |
Everything else follows from this table. On the come-out the Pass Line wins outright with 8 of 36 combinations (22.2%) and loses with 4 of 36 (11.1%). With a point of 6 or 8 there are 5 ways to win against 6 ways to lose, so you win 45.5% of the time. A point of 4 or 10 gives 3 against 6, just 33.3%. Added up, the Pass Line wins 49.3% of all rounds.
Practise free before anything else
The flow of a round sticks after twenty or so rolls, the table above after an evening. As with every casino game the house edge never goes away; you only choose how large it is. If you would like to try other classics first, the table games section has free play-money demos, and the roulette rules guide runs the same maths for the wheel.
FAQ
What is the best bet in craps? Pass Line or Don’t Pass with odds added. The base bet costs 1.41% or 1.36% and the odds bet itself costs nothing. Everything in the centre of the layout is far more expensive.
What does “seven out” mean? The shooter rolls a 7 after a point has been set. The Pass Line loses, the round ends and the dice pass to the next player.
Can a betting system beat craps? No. Each roll is independent and dice have no memory. Systems change your variance, never the house edge.
Is the Field a good bet because it covers seven numbers? It covers seven totals but only 16 of the 36 combinations. The frequent totals 5, 6, 7 and 8 are missing. Even with 2:1 on both 2 and 12 the edge is about 5.56%.