How do you play craps?

Craps is, of course, a gambling game in which players bet on the outcome of a single roll, or a series of rolls, of two dice. Craps offers numerous betting opportunities, but the main wager, around which the game is structured, is the so-called ‘pass line’ bet.

A pass line bet typically takes more than one roll to decide. The pass sequence starts with the first roll of the dice, known as the ‘come out’ roll. If the first number rolled is 7 or 11, a pass bet wins straight away but, similarly, if the first number rolled is 2, 3 or 12, a.k.a. ‘craps’, a pass bet loses straight away. Any other number establishes, or sets, a ‘point’; thereafter, for a pass bet to win, the shooter must roll the point number again before he or she rolls a 7, or ‘sevens out’. Winning pass bets pay even money, or 1/1, and offer a low house edge of 1.41%. Alternatively, if a point has already been set for pass bettors, players can place a similar bet, known as a ‘come’ bet, the sequence for which starts with the next roll of the dice. The odds, and the house edge, for a come bet are identical to those for a pass bet.

In a bricks-and-mortar casino, players place pass and come bets by putting their own chips on the appropriate area of the craps table. However, certain other bets, such as place bets – which allow players to wager on the numbers 4-10 at any time before the shooter sevens out – are not self-service and require chips to be placed on the table by the dealer, under instruction from the player.