If you are going to a casino and looking to have some fun, you should consider visiting the craps table. Unlike the solitary slot machines, you can actually meet people while shooting craps, and with a little bit of knowledge, craps can pay out odds better that of the loosest slot machines.

Here are some things you should know before walking in the door.

The Rule of the House Advantage

The first rule to remember when you walk into a casino, regardless of if you are going to play craps, slots, or any of the other options available to you, is that there is always a house advantage. If there was no house advantage, there would not be a house. Every casino exists for one basic reason: to make money.

As you go in, look around you at all the beautiful decorations and nicely dressed employees. This is a business in place to make a profit. You should really think of yourself not as a customer, but as a resource for this business. The money they make comes directly from your pocket. Is it possible to walk out with more money than you walked in with? Sure, but the odds are not in your favor. No system, no matter how great it claims to be, can consistently win you money against the house.

The Rule of Knowing Your Limits

The second rule ties directly into the Rule of the House Advantage, and that is knowing how much you can afford to lose, setting that predetermined limit, and sticking to it. Craps odds are some of the best you can find, but, again, there is always a house advantage. You might be lucky enough to play for hours on end with that $100 bankroll, or you might lose it all in the course of a handful of unlucky rolls.

Shooting craps can be very entertaining, but betting away this month’s house payment is just stupid. If you can not afford to lose all of the money you are betting with, you can not afford to gamble. Go see any of the variety of free shows Vegas has to offer.

The Rule of No Memory

Many gamblers think that just because a seven has not been rolled for quite some time, that the dice are “due” to come up seven. Dice do not work this way. Players often refer to this by saying that “the dice have no memory.” Even if a seven has not been rolled for 10, 50, or even 10,000 rolls, the odds that a seven will come up on the next roll are exactly the same as if a seven has been rolled that many times straight. Each roll is independent of every other roll.

Figure Out What You Want

Do you want to try to strike it rich? Maybe you would be satisfied with just the excitement of having a good time. If you do want to try to make money out of this, always keep in mind the Rule of the House Advantage. Odds are, you are going to walk out with less than you walked in with, but it is possible, which is what keeps people coming back. If this is your goal, you have completed the transition from being a customer of the casino into being its resource.

If you are just looking to have fun, then you have switched your role away from being a resource back towards being a customer. You can never completely be 100% customer and 0% resource, but by betting intelligently, you can at least get your money’s worth (if not your money) out of the casino.

Craps Rules

No one likes an idiot, plain and simple, but don’t feel like you need to be a craps expert to have some fun playing craps. You should have a general knowledge about what is going on before you start betting, but the house help staff at any craps table are more than willing to help you learn more about the game, so talk to them and ask questions. If they do not appear to be helpful, one of two things is happening: either you are being an idiot, or they are being rude. As long as you know the basic rules of craps and are not overly inebriated, chances are you are not being an idiot. You do not want to play in a casino that has rude employees, so find somewhere else to play. This again will shift your role away from being a resource of the casino toward being a customer of it.

The Boxman

When you walk up to the craps table, there will almost always be four people working at it. The first person you are likely to need is the boxman, who stands in the center of the back side of the craps table over top of the box, where all of the chips are kept.

The primary job of the boxman is to keep an eye on the casino’s chips and to trade your money for the equivalent value in chips. This needs to be done before you can do any betting.

You can also have the boxman break large value chips into lower value chips. For example, you could give the boxman a $25 chip and ask that they “break that into fives.” The boxman will take your $25 chip and give you five $5 chips back.

Alternatively, the boxman can also give you a higher value chip for the proper amount of lower value chips. If you want this to happen, you would ask them for a “color change.”

One thing the boxman will not do is exchange chips for cash. For this, you will need to go to the casino’s cage.

The Dealers

The second and third employees at the table are called base dealers or simply just dealers. They will be the two people standing on either side of the boxman. They are in charge of keeping track of most all of the bets placed on the table and instruct the boxman on which bets need to be collected and which ones need to be paid out.

In a well working casino team, the boxman and dealers work in unison with each other, especially if the table does not have a large number of players. As the table becomes more crowded, however, they will limit their work to only what they are responsible for and will rely more on communication between them.

The Stickman

The fourth and final employee at the table is the stickman, who will stand in the center of the table opposite of the boxman and dealers. The stickman is mostly responsible for keeping track of the dice and announcing the results of each of the rolls, however they do assist the dealers in keeping track of certain bets.

Gameplay

A typical roll will start with the dealers taking bets from the players around the table and, once the bets are finalized, the stickman will use a long wooden stick to shove five dice toward the shooter, which is simply the player responsible for rolling the dice during that round. The shooter with then select two dice to roll, and the other three dice will be retained by the stickman.

After the roll is complete and the bets are either collected or paid on, the stickman with either return the two dice to the shooter, or push all five dice to the next shooter, which would be the person to the left of the previous shooter.

When you are the shooter, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

• You must at least bet the table’s minimum amount on either the pass line or the don’t pass line. We’ll get to what that means in a moment.
• You are usually required to roll the dice in a manner that causes them to bounce off the opposite wall of the craps table. Some casinos will allow a roll that does not reach the opposite wall, but if you do it repeatedly, you will be asked to make sure that future rolls make it all the way across the table. If you keep doing it, you will likely be asked to stop playing.
• Make sure that the dice do not land in the boxman stash of chips or anywhere off of the table. Again, doing it once or twice is not likely to get you tossed from the table, but keep doing it and you are going to be sent on your way.
• Generally speaking, it is wise to not throw the dice any higher than eye level. In some casinos, it is actually a rule.
• Only handle the dice with one hand and never take them past the edge of the table. The table employees will be sticklers on these rules, as passing the dice from hand to hand or taking them from the edge of the table could be an attempt to switch the table’s dice for loaded ones. Chances are you will only get one warning if you do this, if you even get that.
• If it is your turn to be the shooter, and you would prefer not to roll the dice, it is perfectly acceptable to offer the next person in line the dice. If there are very few people at the table, however, it is usually a good idea to take your turn rolling, as being the shooter requires you to bet on either pass line or don’t pass line. Perhaps that one other player does not want to bet on those this round.

Simple Betting

I know what you are thinking. “Finally, it’s time to start betting!” The two most basic types of bets in craps are the pass line bet and the don’t pass line bet. Let’s look at both in turn.

The Pass Line Bet

This is the standard craps bet that most everyone at the table will do on most every round. To place this type of bet, you simply have to place the amount you wish to bet on the pass line area of the craps table. Keep in mind that all craps tables have a minimum bet, meaning that your bet must be at least equal to that in order to be a valid bet.

After placing a pass line bet, the shooter will roll the dice for what is called a come-out roll. The pass line bet wins automatically if the come-out roll is either a 7 or 11. If this happens, the house will pay you 1:1 on your bet, meaning that if you bet $5, you would get that back, plus and additional $5. Should the come-out roll be a 2, 3, or 12, the pass line bet is an automatic loser, and you can kiss that $5 bet good-bye. In either of these cases, the round of betting is over.

If the come-out roll was not among the natural winners or losers, the number rolled becomes the point and the round continues. In order to win now, the dice must be rolled to add up to the established point before a 7 is rolled. If a 7 is rolled before the point, the pass line bet loses on what is called a seven out, and the shooter changes to the next person. If anything besides the point or a 7 is rolled, the round continues.

From an odds point of view, the actual odds of winning on a pass line bet are 251:244, giving the casino a house advantage of 1.41%.

Examples

• You place a $5 pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 7. The bet pays out 1:1, so with the automatic winner you are given back $10.
• You place a $5 pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 2. The bet automatically loses.
• You place a $5 pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 9, making it the point. The next roll is a 4, and play continues. The next roll is a 9, and the pass line bet wins. The bet still pays out 1:1, so you are given back $10.
• You place a $5 pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 4, making it the point. The next roll is a 7, and the pass line bet loses.

The Don’t Pass Line Bet

The don’t pass line bet works almost exactly opposite of the pass line bet. Most craps players call betting in this way “playing the dark side,” as it goes against the typical betting practice. A group of people around a craps table will usually all bet pass line and, if you bet don’t pass line, you are essentially betting against them.

In order to win automatically on a don’t pass bet, the come-out roll needs to be either a 2 or 3, and again pays out 1:1. If the come-out roll is a 7 or 11, the don’t pass bet loses. Usually, a 12 roll is a push, meaning that you do not lose the money you bet, but you do not get anything extra back, either.

If the come-out roll is not a natural winner or loser, the roll again establishes the point, but now you must hope that a 7 is rolled before the point. If a 7 is rolled first, then the don’t pass bet wins. Should the point be rolled first, the bet loses.

Again looking at odds, don’t pass line bets have actual odds of 251:244, but because of the rule of a 12 on the come-out roll being a push instead of a winner, the house advantage checks in at around 1.36%.

Examples

• You place a $5 don’t pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 2. This is an automatic win, and you are given back $10.
• You place a $5 don’t pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 7. The bet automatically loses.
• You place a $5 don’t pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 12. The bet is a push, and you are returned your original $5.
• You place a $5 don’t pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 4, making it the point. After rolls of 2 and 9, a 7 is rolled, and the bet wins. You are given back $10.
• You place a $5 don’t pass line bet, and the come-out roll is a 9, making it the point. The next roll is a 9, and the bet loses.
• Provided that you have placed either a pass line or a don’t pass line bet and that the come-out roll was neither an automatic winner or loser, you now have the option of placing a secondary bet, called an odds bet, on top of the original line bet. Doing this allows you to get paid true odds on that portion of the bet. To place an odds bet, simply place the chips just behind your original line bet. The odds bet is best described with a set of examples.
• You place a $5 pass line bet and the come-out roll is a 10, making it the point. You then decide to place a $10 odds bet. The next roll is a 4, which means that the round continues. Following roll is a 10, which was the established point, so the bets win. The original $5 bet pays out 1:1, so you get $10 returned to you for that portion of the bet. The odds bet pays out 2:1 for a 10, so you get back your original $10 bet plus $20 in winnings for a total of $30 on the odds bet of $10.
• You place a $5 pass line bet and the come-out roll is an 8, making it the point. You then decide to place a $10 odds bet. The very next roll is a 7, and both bets lose. The boxman collects all $15.

The best part of the odds bet is that it pays out at true odds. The house has no advantage on the odds bet, although they retain the advantage on the original line bet. Assuming the original bet was a pass line bet, points of 4 and 10 pay out at 2:1, 5 and 9 pay out at 3:2, and 6 and 8 pay out at 6:5. If the original bet was a don’t pass line bet, then the odds are 1:2, 2:3, and 5:6 respectively.

It is noteworthy that don’t pass odds bets place you on the long side, meaning the payout for a $10 don’t pass odds bet on a point of 4 would only get you $15 back, as opposed to a $10 pass odds on a point of 4 paying back $30. Even though it looks like a bad bet on the surface, you are still getting actual odds and the house still has no advantage.

Craps Etiquette

So, now that you understand the basics, let’s turn our attention to a few of the finer points of etiquette that you should observe when shooting craps.

• Bet pass line instead of don’t pass line

  I know that statistically speaking, the don’t pass line bet has better chance of winning, but it is considered in poor taste to bet this way because odds are you are betting against everyone else at the table. Craps is very much a social game, and it is not good for the society of the table to be the only person winning when everyone else is losing. On the other side, it isn’t any fun to be the only person losing at a table full of winners. If you are the only person betting at the table, then feel free to bet don’t pass. Otherwise, stick to pass line bets.

• If you are asked to leave, just leave
  

   I do not care why you are being asked to leave, if an employee asks you to leave, you do it. You might think that the law is on your side if you refuse, but you would be wrong. In every situation, a casino employee may ask you to leave for any reason at any time and the law is on their side. If you make a scene, you are going to be using your gambling bankroll to bail yourself out of jail. Hopefully, though, it won’t get to this point.

• Don’t touch the employees

   For security reasons, the employees are not allowed to touch the players, so don’t expect the boxman to take the money out of your hands. Place it in front of them on the table, and they will return the chips to you in the same way.

• Don’t throw your chips

  One of my personal pet peeves is when a player will wildly throw their chips on the table and call out a bet. It’s obnoxious. Instead, get one of the dealer’s attention, tell him your bet, then lightly toss your chips in the general direction of where it needs to end up.

• Don’t ask for excessive color changes

  Generally speaking, you will only really need to ask for a color change when you are getting ready to walk away from the table. Asking for a color change or a break every couple rounds will get annoying to the casino employees and the other players.

• Don’t dally when setting your dice

  Most places allow the shooter to set the dice before the roll, provided that they do not drastically slow the pace of the game in doing so. Occasionally, you might even find a casino that does not allow setting. There have been studies done that suggest you can somewhat control the outcome of a roll based on how you set and roll the dice, but it is by no means considered fact. If you are reading this, chances are how you set the dice will have zero effect on what they end up being after the roll. Just take the dice and roll them.

• Keep yourself under control

  Free drinks are the most common complementary given out at a casino because the casino is hoping to get you drunk. Drunk people make bad decisions, and in a casino this usually means that you forget The Rule of Knowing Your Limits. I’m not saying you should be a complete teetotaler, as those free drinks cost much more than that at the bar. Take advantages of the free drinks, just don’t let them take advantage of you. If you are looking to get hammered, just go to the bar, give them your money, and cut out the middle man.

• Tip the help

  You should always give the help staff some type of tip, especially so if you are walking away from the table with a load of money. One way of tipping is just to place a chip onto the table and say “for the boys.” This is acceptable even if some of the casino employees are female, although you should probably change it to “for the ladies” if all of the employees are female. If you are uncomfortable with the gender specifics, simply tell them it is “for excellent service.” Alternatively, you can place a bet for the help as well. Typically, you would announce the bet as being “for the house.” I personally prefer just giving the help the money as opposed to placing a bet for them, as if the bet loses, the house gets the money, and the help staff gets nothing.

Betting Strategies

Hopefully, you did not skip over the first section and have in mind exactly what you want out of your gambling experience, as it will dictate how you want to play the game. We will assume that you walk up to a table that requires a minimum bet of $5 with a bankroll of $100. (Please note that your bankroll is not how much money you have, but how much money you can afford to lose. Again, it might be a good idea to review The Rule of Knowing Your Limits.)

Maximizing Time

Let’s say that you have bought into the fact that odds are in the favor of the casino and you just want to use your $100 to have as much fun as possible and are not looking to walk away from the table a big winner. If this is the case, you should bet only pass line bets and avoid odds bets. By doing this, you are going to be able to, on average, play for somewhere between ten to twenty hours on just your $100 bankroll. The thing to keep in mind here, though, is that you could lose it all in twenty rolls, or about ten minutes, and while that is not likely to happen, it certain can and does.

Maximizing Payout

Going to the other extreme and trying to walk out with a huge payout is a trade-off. Certainly the bigger your bets, the more you can win but the faster you can lose it. You should still try to do so in an intelligent manner. Keep your pass line bet at $5 and bet the big bucks on the odds bet, where the house doesn’t have an advantage. Different tables have different maximum bets on odds, but “5X” odds are pretty common. What this means is that a place line bet of $5 will allow a $25 pass line odds bet, or five times the amount. You will get a higher payout on a $5 pass line bet followed by a $25 odds bet than you will from a $30 pass line bet.

If you follow a system of $5 pass line bets, followed by $5 odds bets, that ten to twenty hours off average playing time drops down to between three and seven hours. A $10 pass line odds bet would drop that average to between one and three. A $25 odds bet drops that even further, making the average playing time to less than an hour.

Managing Your Bankroll

The typical way to get money back off the table is to set a limit to how big your bankroll should get to before you pocket some of the money. You could wait until you double your bankroll before removing any money, or you could drop back to your original bankroll after only getting to $10 above it. The choice should be dependent on your betting strategy.

If you are betting odds …

Let’s start with the “Maximizing Payout” example above. If you are playing any sort of odds, regardless of how much, it is usually a good idea to wait until you double your bankroll before you take any money off of the table. Why is this a good idea?

• Keeping more money on the table will allow you to play longer
• In this situation, you are drastically less likely to walk away with your original bankroll if you pocket money too often. If you were to pocket every time you gained $10 over your original bankroll, you would only break even about about 35% of the time. If you wait to double your bankroll, however, that jumps up to around 45% while only averaging about $4 less in average payout.
• Even though you are more likely to walk away with nothing, this was a decision you already made by trying to win big in the first place. If you are going to go for it, you might as well go all out.

If you are not betting odds …

Now looking at the “Maximizing Time” example above, it is better to take out money more often for several reasons.

• Taking out money more often will limit your playing time, but you are still going to average 10 hours of playing time. After all, you need to hit that buffet at some point in time.
• In this type of betting, the more often you take money out, the more often you will maintain your original bankroll. The chances of you ever doubling your bankroll without betting odds is very unlikely, and by following the double method, you will only retain your original bankroll about 13% of the time. By taking out anytime you gain more than $10, this jumps to 25%.
• You are more likely to walk away with more money. By pulling back money more often, you will, on average, walk away with about $75 of your original $100. That number drops if you wait.

Now What?

Well, now it’s time to find a craps table and start playing. Go play, ask questions, and always remember to have fun.