Every bet on a craps layout comes down to two things: what it pays, and what it costs you over time. This page covers both, for every bet on the table. If you haven't played a full round yet, start with How to Play first — this page assumes you already know what a come-out roll and a point are, and gets straight into the bets themselves.

House edge is the casino's average cut of every dollar wagered on a bet, over the long run. A 1.41% house edge means that, averaged across a large number of bets, the casino keeps about 1.4 cents of every dollar wagered on the pass line. It says nothing about any single roll — you can win ten pass line bets in a row and lose the next ten — but it tells you how a bet is priced relative to everything else on the table.

Quick Reference by House Edge

Every bet on the layout, ranked from best value to worst:

The pattern holds across the whole layout: the bets you build a session around sit at the top, and the ones in the flashiest colors in the center of the table sit at the bottom.

Pass Line

Payout: even money. House edge: 1.41%. This is the bet nearly everyone at the table makes, placed before the come-out roll. Say you put $10 on the pass line. If the come-out roll is a 7 or 11, you win $10 right away. If it's a 2, 3, or 12, you lose the $10 outright. Any other number — say a 6 — becomes the point, and now your $10 just sits there riding on that 6: it wins if the shooter rolls another 6 before a 7 shows up, and loses if the 7 comes first.

Free Odds

Payout: 2:1 on a point of 4 or 10, 3:2 on a point of 5 or 9, 6:5 on a point of 6 or 8. House edge: 0%. Odds is the only bet on the layout with zero house edge — it pays exactly what the true probability says it should. You can only place it after a point is set, and only behind an existing pass line, don't pass, come, or don't come bet; it doesn't exist on its own, and you place it yourself directly behind your original wager. Most casinos cap how much you can add relative to your original bet, commonly stated as "3-4-5X odds" depending on the point.

Don't Pass

Payout: even money. House edge: 1.36%. Don't pass is a bet against the shooter, placed before the come-out roll. Say you put $10 on don't pass. A 2 or 3 on the come-out wins you $10 right away, a 7 or 11 loses it right away, and a 12 just pushes — you get your $10 back, no win or loss. Any other number sets the point, and from there your $10 is rooting for a 7: it wins if a 7 shows up before that point number repeats, and loses if the point comes first.

Come

Payout: even money. House edge: 1.41%. A come bet works exactly like a pass line bet, just placed later — any time after the point is already set instead of before the come-out roll. Say the shooter's point is 6, and you put $10 in the come box. The next roll acts like its own personal come-out just for that bet: a 7 or 11 wins right away, a 2, 3, or 12 loses right away, and anything else becomes that bet's own point. If the next roll is an 8, your $10 now sits on the 8, tracked in its own box by the dealer, completely separate from the shooter's 6.

Don't Come

Payout: even money. House edge: 1.36%. Don't come is a bet against a number, placed any time after the come-out roll. Say you put $10 in the don't come box and the next roll is a 5 — that $10 now sits against the 5, tracked in its own box by the dealer. From there, you win if a 7 rolls before the 5 comes back around, and you lose if the 5 hits again first. There's one wrinkle on that very first roll after you place the bet: instead of setting a number, a 2 or 3 wins right away, a 7 or 11 loses right away, and a 12 just pushes.

Place Bets (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10)

Place bets let you bet directly on a number hitting before a 7, without needing a pass line bet first. Tell the dealer the number and amount — "place the 6 for twelve dollars" — and they'll set your chips in that number's box. The house edge depends on the number:

Bet size matters here, because these payouts only come out to a whole dollar amount at certain increments. Bet the 6 or 8 in multiples of $6 ($6, $12, $18, $30) so the 7:6 payout lands on a clean number. Bet the 5, 9, 4, or 10 in multiples of $5 so the 7:5 or 9:5 payout does the same. Bet an odd amount like $10 on the 6, and the dealer either has to round the payout or you're leaving fractions of a dollar on the table.

Buy Bets

Payout: true odds — 2:1 on 4 or 10, 3:2 on 5 or 9, 6:5 on 6 or 8 — minus a 5% commission. A buy bet pays true odds instead of the shortened place-bet payout, in exchange for that commission, and you tell the dealer what you want the same way you would for a place bet. How the commission is charged changes the math: some casinos take the 5% up front regardless of whether you win, which works out to a flat 4.76% house edge across every number. Others only charge the commission if you win, which lowers the cost and makes it vary by number — roughly 1.7% on 4 or 10, 2% on 5 or 9, and a bit over 2% on 6 or 8. Ask the dealer which convention the table uses before you bet, since it changes whether a buy bet is worth making at all. Buy bets are typically made in $20 or $25 increments so the 5% commission comes out to a clean dollar figure.

Lay Bets

Payout: true odds against the number — 1:2 on 4 or 10, 2:3 on 5 or 9, 5:6 on 6 or 8 — minus a 5% commission on the win. A lay bet is the buy bet's opposite: you're betting a 7 comes before the number, so you risk more to win less, the same tradeoff a don't pass bettor makes. As with buy bets, some tables charge the commission up front and some only on a win, so it's worth asking before you bet. Using the more common "commission on win" convention, the house edge is:

That's the reverse of buy bets — laying against 4 or 10 is the cheapest lay on the layout, while laying against 6 or 8 costs the most, since you're risking a much larger amount to win a small payout on a number that hits often anyway.

Field Bet

Field is a one-roll bet you place yourself, in the field box directly in front of you, on any roll — win if the next roll is a 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12, lose on anything else including 7. The 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11 always pay even money, but the payout on 2 and 12 is where tables differ, and it's the single biggest thing to check before you bet this one. Some tables pay 2:1 on both the 2 and the 12. Others pay double on the 2 (2:1) but triple on the 12 (3:1), which lowers the house edge. At the better 2:1-and-3:1 payout, the house edge is 2.78%. At the flat 2:1-on-both version, it doubles to 5.56%. The rules are printed right on the felt in the field box itself — check them before you bet, since the difference compounds fast over a session.

Hardways (4, 6, 8, 10)

A hardways bet wins if the number rolls as a matching pair — hard 4 is two 2s, hard 10 is two 5s, hard 6 is two 3s, hard 8 is two 4s — before it rolls any other way or a 7 shows up. These are proposition bets, placed by handing chips to a dealer or calling them out to the stickman. The house edge depends on the number:

These stay on the layout as working bets even during the come-out roll, unlike most other proposition bets, but the house edge on all four runs high enough that they're best treated as occasional side action.

Working vs. Off: What Happens on the Come-Out Roll

Pass line, come, and odds bets are always working, every roll. Place, buy, lay, and hardways bets default to "off" during the come-out roll unless you tell the dealer to leave them working — a come-out 7 wins for the pass line but would otherwise lose a place bet on any number besides 7, so the default protects you from that. Tell the dealer "working" if you want a place or buy bet live through the come-out anyway. Don't come odds are the exception — they're always working, since a don't bettor benefits from a 7.

Center Table Proposition Bets

Proposition bets are one-roll wagers handled by the stickman in the center of the layout. You place these by tossing chips toward the stickman and calling the bet, or handing chips to a dealer who relays them across — you never reach into the center yourself. As a group, propositions carry the highest house edges on the table.

Any Seven

Payout: 4:1. House edge: 16.67%. This is a bet that the next roll is a 7 — nothing else. It's also one of the worst bets on the layout, since a number that shows up on 6 of 36 possible rolls only pays 4:1 instead of the fair 5:1.

Horn

Payout: 15:1 on the 3 and 11 portions, 30:1 on the 2 and 12 portions. House edge: 12.5%. A horn bet splits your wager equally across 2, 3, 11, and 12 in one call — a $4 horn puts $1 on each number. Whichever hits, you get paid on that portion and lose the rest.

Yo (Eleven)

Payout: 15:1. House edge: 11.11%. "Yo" is table slang for eleven, called that way so it doesn't get confused with "seven" in a loud room. This wins only if the next roll is an 11 — the single-number version of the bet the horn splits four ways.

Aces and Boxcars

Payout: 30:1 on both. House edge: 13.89% on each. Aces is a bet on a 2, and boxcars is the same bet on a 12 — the two hardest single-roll totals to make, since each has only one dice combination out of 36 possible rolls. Both pay the same and carry the same house edge.

Big 6 and Big 8

Payout: even money. House edge: 9.09% on each. Big 6 and Big 8 bet that the 6 or 8 rolls before a 7 — the same premise as a place bet on those numbers, except this one pays only even money instead of 7:6. That difference alone more than quadruples the house edge compared to placing the number directly, which is why experienced players skip Big 6 and Big 8 and place the number instead. You place this one yourself, directly in its labeled box, without needing the dealer.

Cross-reference this page against the House Edge Chart for the full ranked list in chart form, or check the Craps Glossary if a term above didn't make sense. When you're ready to see how any of these bets play out over a full session, the simulator lets you test them with no money on the line.

Related pages
How to Play CrapsThe full beginner walkthrough: the table, the crew, and the come-out roll.Craps GlossaryEvery craps term defined in plain language, organized A to Z.Craps StrategyHow these bets combine into a bankroll-friendly session, from beginner to advanced.