The table with the dice in the middle
Walk past a busy casino floor and one table stands out before you see a single card: the long, felt-covered layout with raised walls at both ends and a crowd leaning over it. That is craps, the only mainstream casino table game built entirely around two six-sided dice and the chips stacked in the rail in front of each player. The dealer does not deal cards, and the wheel does not spin. A player at the rail throws the dice, everyone at the table has money on the result, and the whole round turns on what those two cubes show when they stop.
The chips matter as much as the dice. Craps is a game of many simultaneous bets, and the layout is covered in printed boxes that each represent a different wager with its own odds. New players often freeze because the table looks like a spreadsheet, but the underlying sequence is simple: a shooter throws the dice, a point is established, and the table waits to see whether the point repeats before a seven appears.
How a round moves
A round of craps has a clear spine. First, the shooter places a bet on the pass line or the don't pass line before the come-out roll. The come-out roll is the first throw of a new sequence. If that roll is a 7 or 11, pass-line bets win and the round ends. If it is a 2, 3, or 12, pass-line bets lose and the round ends. Any other number—4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10—becomes the point.
Once a point is set, the shooter keeps throwing. The pass-line bet now wins if the point number appears again before a 7, and loses if a 7 appears first. Every other number is noise for that bet; it just moves the round along. When either the point or a 7 lands, the sequence resolves, the dice move to the next shooter, and a new come-out roll begins. The same two dice produce 36 equally likely combinations, and the payouts on each bet are built from those combinations.
What the main bets mean
The pass line is the backbone of the table. It pays even money and is resolved in two stages, as described above. The don't pass is its mirror image: it wins on a come-out 2 or 3, loses on a 7 or 11, and a 12 is a push on many layouts. After a point is set, don't pass wins if a 7 appears before the point. Because it bets against the shooter, it carries a slightly different edge than the pass line, and it is the bet that makes a player quietly unpopular at a lively table.
Beyond those two, the layout offers a long menu of one-roll and multi-roll wagers. The come bet works like a pass-line bet made after the point is already established. Place bets let you put money directly on 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 and win if that number appears before a 7. The field bet is a single-roll wager on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12. Proposition bets in the centre of the table cover specific rolls—any seven, any craps, hardways, and the horn—and they are where the house edge climbs sharply.
| Bet | What it does | How the edge compares |
|---|---|---|
| Pass line | Wins on come-out 7 or 11, loses on 2, 3, or 12, then wins if the point repeats before a 7 | Among the lowest edges on the table |
| Don't pass | Mirror of the pass line, with 12 often a push on the come-out | Slightly lower edge than pass line on most layouts |
| Come | A pass-line bet made after the point is established | Same edge structure as the pass line |
| Place bets | Direct wager on a specific point number before a 7 | Edge varies by number; higher than pass line |
| Field | One-roll bet on a group of numbers | Higher edge than pass line and place bets |
| Proposition bets | One-roll wagers on specific totals or combinations | The highest edges on the layout |
Different bet types on the same table carry materially different house edges. The pass line and don't pass line sit at the low end; the centre proposition bets sit at the high end. A player can stand at the same rail and make a low-edge bet and a high-edge bet within the same minute, which is why reading the layout before placing chips matters more than memorising every payout.
What the dice determine
Two six-sided dice produce 36 equally likely combinations, but those combinations are not equally distributed across totals. There is only one way to roll a 2 (1-1) and one way to roll a 12 (6-6), but six ways to roll a 7 (1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, 6-1). That distribution is the entire mathematical engine of craps. The 7 is the most likely single total on any throw, which is why it plays the role of the ending event after a point is set.
This also explains why the pass line does not simply pay even money on a coin flip. The two-stage structure—come-out roll first, then the point phase—rebalances the probabilities so that the house holds an edge while the player still wins close to half of resolved bets over a long series. The edge does not come from the dice being altered or the table being rigged; it comes from the payout on each bet being slightly short of what the true odds would require.
Buy-in, chips, and the rhythm at the rail
You do not hand cash to the shooter or to another player. At a craps table, cash goes onto the layout in front of you, and the dealer exchanges it for chips. The chips used at craps are the same casino cheques used elsewhere on the floor, but the table runs on a stricter placement discipline: chips for a bet go into the printed box for that bet, and the dealer positions them precisely so the boxman and the cameras can read every wager.
When the dice are in the middle of the table, keep your hands out of the layout. Late bets, moved chips, and hands crossing the rail during a throw are the three procedural mistakes that slow a game down fastest. Place your bet before the shooter has the dice, say the bet aloud if the table is noisy, and never touch chips once a roll has started. The stickman controls the dice between throws, and the shooter is the only person who handles them during a roll.
Why strategy charts are rule-specific
Craps does not have a decision chart in the way blackjack does, but the principle is the same: the correct play depends on the exact rules printed on the table. Some layouts pay 2 to 1 on a field 2 or 12, while others pay 3 to 1 on one of them. Some tables allow odds bets behind the pass line at 3-4-5 times the original wager, others at different multiples. A bet that is reasonable on one layout can be worse on another purely because of the printed payout.
Before you put money on any box, read the payout printed inside it. The table layout is the rulebook, and it is different from venue to venue. The pass-line bet itself is stable across almost all layouts, which is why it is the bet most new players learn first, but every side bet and proposition carries its own printed terms.
FAQ
Is craps the only casino game that uses dice?
Craps is the main table game built around dice, but some venues also offer sic bo, a game played with three dice and a layout of total-based bets. The mechanics differ: sic bo is a single-roll game with no point phase, while craps sequences multiple rolls around a point.
Do I have to throw the dice if I play craps?
No. The shooter is the player currently holding the dice, but everyone at the table can bet on the outcome without ever touching them. You can decline the dice when the stickman offers them, and many players do exactly that while still betting the pass line or don't pass line.
Which craps bet loses money slowest over time?
The pass line and don't pass line carry the lowest house edges on a standard layout, with don't pass slightly lower on most tables. The centre proposition bets carry the highest edges. No bet removes the house edge; the lower-edge bets simply change the expected rate of loss over a long series of rolls.
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