Craps Odds
There may not be any game that places such importance on knowing the odds more than craps. In craps, understanding the odds can be the difference between a slight House edge and total ruin for the player. The casino relies on the fact that many people will take some of the more tempting bets on the layout, not considering whether they are actually bad bets.
Craps Odds Explained
The best bets on the layout are Pass/Don't Pass and Come/Don't Come with odds. The odds pay off at the true odds of rolling the point, which means no House edge. You can't expect to do much better than that when playing casino games. Other bets that have a reasonable House margin are buying and placing individual numbers.
Proposition Bets
The craps bets that can get players into trouble are the other bets on the layout. Many of these bets offer extremely tempting payouts like 8-to-1, 15-to-1, even to 30-to-1. A good rule of thumb in casinos is that the bigger the payout offered, the worse the true odds. If you're getting 1000-to-1 odds on a bet, you can guarantee the odds against that event actually happening are astronomical.
A few of the bad prop bets in craps include:
Hardway Bets: Pays 7-to-1 and 9-to-1, House edge, around seven percent and nine percent.
Any Seven: Pays 4-to-1, House edge 16.67 percent.
Horn Bet: Pays 15-to-1 or 30-to-1, House edge around 12.5 percent.
While it may be fun to play all sorts of high odds bets in craps, your best chances to win lie in only trying to cover numbers, usually by having money on the pass or come line when they are rolled, or by betting against the shooter with don't bets. Using the craps odds to your advantage is a good way to have fun at the casino regardless of which of the many craps casinos you decide to play at.