Category · 0% behind the line
CRAPS: THE ONLY BET WITH NO EDGE ON IT
Free odds behind the pass line is paid at true odds and carries no house advantage at all. It is the only bet on a Canadian casino floor that can say that, and it only exists as a backing bet.
The layout is designed to look complicated and it is mostly decoration. Four bets carry the game: pass, don't pass, come and the odds behind them. Everything else on the felt is priced between five and seventeen percent.
Pass line costs 1.41 percent. Back it with free odds and the blended cost across the total amount at risk falls well under a point, because the backing bet dilutes the edge on the line without adding one of its own.
The maximum odds a table allows is therefore the most important number posted at it. Higher multiples mean a cheaper game for a player who uses them.
Every line, priced
| Bet or rule | Edge | Per hour | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free odds behind the pass linePLAY THIS ONE | 0% | C$0.00 | Paid at true odds. The only bet in a Canadian casino with no house edge on it at all, and it only exists as a backing bet. |
| Don't pass or don't come | 1.36% | C$13.60 | Marginally cheaper than the pass line and it puts you on the opposite side of the table from everyone else. |
| Pass line or come | 1.41% | C$14.10 | The line the whole game is built around. |
| Place six or place eight | 1.52% | C$15.20 | The best of the place bets. The others climb quickly. |
| Field | 5.56% | C$55.60 | Two and twelve paying double. Where twelve pays triple it falls to 2.78 and that is worth checking. |
| Hard eight | 9.09% | C$90.90 | A proposition bet dressed up as part of the game. |
| Any seven | 16.67% | C$166.70 | One roll, four to one, on a one in six shot. The most expensive bet on the layout. |
Per hour is the edge multiplied by 100 decisions and a C$10 stake. It is a long-run rate rather than a prediction about an evening. Every figure above is a property of the rules and applies at any table running them.
Cashiers running a live floor
22 of the 23 cashiers inside the 24 hour rule run a live floor, 3,515 tables between them. 20 casinos sit past the rule and carry no link anywhere on this site. GO pays a commission when an account opens through it.
The propositions in the middle
Any seven pays four to one on a one in six shot. That is a sixteen and a half percent edge and it is the worst standing bet on the layout. The hard ways are not far behind.
They sit in the centre of the table, they are called out loudly, and they exist because the pass line is cheap and something has to pay for the room.
Skipping the middle entirely costs nothing and saves everything.
Craps online against craps in a room
The odds are identical. The pace is not: a software table resolves rolls as fast as you press, which at a hundred decisions an hour or more turns a cheap game into a fast one.
Cost per hour is edge multiplied by decisions multiplied by stake. Craps has the highest decision rate of any category on this site, which makes pace the variable worth controlling.
Live craps streams exist and run at close to floor pace, which is slower and cheaper per hour for exactly that reason.
Asked about craps tables
What is the best bet in craps?
Free odds behind a pass or come bet. It is paid at true odds and carries no house edge, which makes it unique on a casino floor.
Is don't pass better than pass?
Marginally, at 1.36 against 1.41 percent. The difference across an evening is small and real.
Are proposition bets ever worth it?
Not on the numbers. They run from five to over sixteen percent and exist to subsidise the cheap bets around them.