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Craps Best Bets Ranked by House Edge: Pass Line, Odds, and What to Avoid
The pass line runs a 1.41% house edge. Don't pass is slightly better at 1.36%. Free odds carry zero edge at all. Here is the full craps bet ranking — and why Big 6, Hardways, and Any 7 exist only to drain your bankroll.
The pass line bet in craps carries a house edge of 1.41%. That is the number the mathematics produces, across millions of rolls, after accounting for the come-out win (7 or 11), come-out loss (2, 3, or 12), and every possible point resolution. It is not a great number — but it is one of the better deals in a casino, and it improves substantially once free odds enter the picture.
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The Come-Out Roll: How Craps Works
Before the bets make sense, the structure needs to. Craps runs in two phases:
Come-out roll: The shooter rolls. A 7 or 11 wins the pass line immediately. A 2, 3, or 12 loses it (this is called crapping out). Any other result — 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 — becomes the point.
Point phase: The shooter keeps rolling until either the point repeats (pass line wins) or a 7 appears (pass line loses, a “seven-out”). The come bet works identically to the pass line but is placed after a point is established, giving you essentially a second pass-line wager active at the same time.
The don’t pass and don’t come bets invert this logic: they lose on a come-out 7 or 11, win on a come-out 2 or 3, and push on 12 (this push is what prevents don’t-side bettors from having an outright advantage). In the point phase, don’t bettors are rooting for a seven-out.
Craps Bets Ranked by House Edge
| Bet | House Edge | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Don’t Pass / Don’t Come | 1.36% | Slight edge over pass due to come-out structure |
| Pass Line / Come | 1.41% | The standard entry point for most players |
| Place bet on 6 or 8 | 1.52% | Pays 7:6; better than the field on these numbers |
| Place bet on 5 or 9 | 4.00% | Pays 7:5 on a 3:2 true probability |
| Place bet on 4 or 10 | 6.67% | Pays 9:5 on a 2:1 true probability |
| Field bet | ~5.56% | Varies; 2x on 2 and 12 improves it marginally |
| Big 6 / Big 8 | 9.09% | Even money on 6:5 odds — strictly inferior to place 6/8 |
| Any Craps | 11.11% | One-roll proposition; rarely worth the speed of loss |
| Hardways (6 or 8) | 9.09% | Bet resolves only on specific doubles |
| Hardways (4 or 10) | 11.11% | Worse than any craps in expected value |
| Any 7 | 16.67% | The single worst standard bet on the craps table |
The middle section of this table — place bets on 5, 9, 4, and 10 — represents territory where many recreational players spend their session. The house edges there are not catastrophic in the way Any 7 is, but they are meaningfully worse than the pass line. An informed player sticks to pass/come and layers odds on top.
Free Odds: The Only Zero-Edge Bet in the Casino
After the come-out roll establishes a point, you can place an additional wager directly behind your original pass line bet. This is called taking odds, and it is the closest thing to a fair bet the casino offers. The reason: the casino pays at exact mathematical probability.
- Point is 4 or 10: true odds are 2:1 (there are six ways to roll a 7, three ways to roll a 4 or 10). Pays 2:1.
- Point is 5 or 9: true odds are 3:2 (six ways to roll 7, four ways to roll 5 or 9). Pays 3:2.
- Point is 6 or 8: true odds are 6:5 (six ways to roll 7, five ways to roll 6 or 8). Pays 6:5.
No commission. No spread. The house edge on the odds bet itself is precisely zero.
The practical implication: the more of your total wager that is in odds rather than flat bets, the lower your blended effective house edge. A $5 pass line bet with $25 in odds behind it (5x odds) runs a blended effective edge well under 0.5%. The flat bet still carries 1.41% — only the odds wager is edge-free — but the ratio shifts heavily toward zero as the odds multiple grows.
Casino maximum odds multiples vary considerably. Many online casinos offer 3x-4-5x odds (the “3-4-5x” structure gives you odds of 3x on 4/10, 4x on 5/9, and 5x on 6/8, calibrated so the payout is always a round number). Some tables offer 10x or even 100x odds. The higher the multiple, the better for the mathematically-minded player — assuming bankroll can absorb the variance.
The Don’t Side: Slightly Better Math, Socially Awkward
Don’t pass and don’t come carry a house edge of 1.36% — marginally lower than the pass line’s 1.41%. The difference is real but small. In 1,000 resolved bets, the gap amounts to roughly half a unit of expected loss.
Where the don’t side differs more substantially is in the point phase. Once a point is established, the don’t bettor is actually the favorite. The probability of a 7 appearing before any given point is higher than the probability of repeating that point (for all points except 6 and 8, where the probability gap is smallest). This is why don’t bettors can also lay odds — the inverse of taking odds — paying 2:1 to win 1:1 on a 4 or 10 point, and so on.
The social framing: at a live craps table, don’t pass bettors are rooting against the shooter, and against most of the table simultaneously. Online craps has no such dynamic, which makes the don’t side purely a mathematical decision rather than a social one.
What to Avoid — and Why These Bets Exist
Any 7 pays 4:1 on a 1-in-6 probability — true fair value would be 5:1. The casino keeps one unit for every six units wagered, producing a 16.67% edge. This is worse than many slot configurations.
Hardways require a specific doubles combination (e.g., hard 8 = 4+4) to appear before an easy combination of the same total or a 7. The payouts are 9:1 for hard 6/8 and 7:1 for hard 4/10, against true odds of 10:1 and 8:1 respectively. Both produce edges around 9–11%.
Big 6 and Big 8 pay even money on a bet with a 6:5 true probability. Place bets on the same numbers pay 7:6. The only reason to choose Big 6/8 over the equivalent place bet is not knowing the place bet exists. Casinos retain this bet precisely because many players do not know.
These bets persist on the table layout because they generate more revenue per dollar wagered than the core bets. A craps table with only pass-line and odds bettors would be less profitable for the house than one where proposition bets circulate freely.
Playing Craps at Crypto Casinos
Online craps at crypto casinos is typically offered in RNG format — the dice outcome is generated by a random number generator and verified by an auditor or, on provably fair platforms, by a cryptographic hash you can verify yourself. Live dealer craps is rarer online than live baccarat or blackjack; when it does appear, check whether the full odds bet structure is supported, since some digital tables restrict the odds multiple or drop it entirely.
See our guide on provably fair vs RNG games for how to verify that a craps result is genuinely random, and house edge explained for the broader context of how casino math works across different games.
Our independently rated roster of crypto casinos where craps may be available (verify game availability on each operator’s site before depositing):
| Casino | Rating | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Stake | 4.4 | Crypto |
| BitStarz | 4.2 | Hybrid |
| Cloudbet | 4.2 | Crypto |
| BC.GAME | 4.0 | Crypto |
| Bitcasino | 4.0 | Crypto |
Ratings reflect licensing, payout track record, and player-reported fairness — not deposits or playthroughs we conducted ourselves. For a full comparison of how these platforms handle withdrawals, see crypto casino payout speed.
If craps is new to you and you want the complete picture of rules and bet types before thinking about edge, our craps complete guide covers the full table layout.
Responsible Gambling
Online craps availability varies by jurisdiction. This article is not legal advice; confirm whether online gambling is lawful in your country of residence before playing. You must be 18 or older (or the legal minimum age in your jurisdiction).
Craps is a fast game — a session can run through many resolved bets in a short time, which accelerates the statistical effect of any house edge. Bankroll discipline matters more here than in slower games. If gambling is causing financial or emotional harm, free support is available from BeGambleAware (UK) and the National Problem Gambling Helpline (US, 1-800-522-4700). For tools to limit your exposure, see our guide to responsible gambling tools.
Bottom line: Craps gives you a genuine choice between bets that differ by more than 15 percentage points of house edge. Pass line and don’t pass are the entry points. Free odds behind either are the most powerful tool the game offers — the only casino bet with no built-in house advantage. Everything in the proposition section of the layout is there to extract money from players who find the main bets too slow. They are not wrong that the propositions are faster. They are faster to lose on, too.
FAQ
- What is the best bet in craps?
- The pass line bet carries a house edge of 1.41%, and the don't pass bet sits at 1.36%. Both become far more powerful when paired with free odds — additional wagers on the same point that pay at true mathematical probability with zero house edge. The combination of don't pass plus maximum odds is, on a strict expected-value basis, one of the lowest house edges available at any casino table.
- What does 'taking odds' mean in craps?
- After the come-out roll establishes a point (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10), you can place an additional bet behind your pass line wager. This is called 'taking odds.' The casino pays this bet at true odds — 2:1 for points of 4 and 10, 3:2 for 5 and 9, 6:5 for 6 and 8 — with no house edge. The table maximum for odds bets varies by casino, typically 2x to 10x the original flat bet.
- Why do Big 6 and Big 8 exist if the place bet on 6 and 8 is better?
- Big 6 and Big 8 pay even money on a 6:5 true probability, producing a house edge of roughly 9.1%. The place bet on the same numbers pays 7:6, cutting the edge to 1.52%. Casinos keep Big 6/8 because some players do not know the place bet exists, or mistake the round-number payout for simplicity. Mathematically, there is no reason to choose Big 6/8 over a place bet on 6 or 8.