Good bets, bad bets: the house edge in craps
Every craps bet ranked by how much it costs you over time. The best bets on the table, the worst, and why no betting pattern can beat the math.
Craps has some of the best bets in the casino, and some of the worst, on the same felt. The difference is the house edge: the share of every bet the casino expects to keep over the long run.
What the house edge means
A bet that pays less than its true odds has a house edge. Take Any Seven. A 7 comes up 6 times in 36 rolls, so fair odds would be 5 to 1. It pays 4 to 1. Over time, you give back 16.67% of everything you bet on it.
It says nothing about the next roll. Anything can happen in one night. It’s what happens across thousands of rolls.
Every bet, ranked
These numbers are worked out from what the bets pay at a PlayCraps table.
| Bet | Pays | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| Odds (any point) | True odds | None |
| Don't Pass | even money | 1.36% |
| Pass Line | even money | 1.41% |
| Place 6 or 8 | 7 to 6 | 1.52% |
| Field | even money | 2.78% |
| Place 5 or 9 | 7 to 5 | 4.00% |
| Place 4 or 10 | 9 to 5 | 6.67% |
| Big 6 or Big 8 | even money | 9.09% |
| Hard 6 or 8 | 9 to 1 | 9.09% |
| Hard 4 or 10 | 7 to 1 | 11.11% |
| Yo (11) | 15 to 1 | 11.11% |
| Any Craps | 7 to 1 | 11.11% |
| Aces (2) | 30 to 1 | 13.89% |
| Any Seven | 4 to 1 | 16.67% |
Come and Don’t Come work out the same as Pass and Don’t Pass.
The good bets
The Odds have no edge at all. Pass, Don’t Pass, Come, and Don’t Come sit under 1.5%. Place 6 and 8 are close behind. A table built from these bets gives the house very little.
The bets to think twice about
The middle of the table is where the edge climbs. Hardways pay big, but cost 9% to 11%. The one-roll bets like Any Seven, Aces, and Yo cost 11% to 17%. They’re fun, and at a PlayCraps table the chips are play money, so enjoy them. Just know what they cost.
No betting pattern beats the edge
Every bet on the table has its own edge, and mixing them doesn’t cancel it out. Pressing after a win, betting more after a loss, or covering every number all change how a session feels, not what it costs over time. That’s why the bots on PlayCraps Live make a great experiment: each one plays a different strategy all week, and over enough rolls they all drift down at about the rate this table predicts.
Play money only: nothing is wagered or paid out.