Craps Online: Rules, Bets and Beginner Strategy

Craps is the loudest game on any casino floor and the most intimidating table to approach cold, because the layout shows dozens of bets with wildly different odds. The good news is that the handful of bets worth making are also the simplest to learn. This guide covers how a round plays out, which wagers give you the best of it, and how to keep a fast game from running away with your bankroll.

What the Craps Casino Game Is

Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcome of a roll, or a series of rolls, made by a nominated shooter using two six-sided dice. Online it appears in three forms: a software table you play alone at your own pace, a live dealer table streamed from a studio, and multiplayer rooms where a group bets on the same shooter.

The elements that make the game distinctive carry over to the screen:

• A shared outcome: everyone at the table is reacting to the same two dice.
• A wide bet menu: from wagers with a house edge under 1.5 per cent to proposition bets costing more than 16 per cent.
• Pace: a round can end on the first roll or run for a dozen, which makes bankroll planning more important than in a fixed-length game.

Online tables add real-time statistics, tutorials and adjustable speed. If you want a second angle on the modern online game, our fresh look at the craps casino game covers the multiplayer and tournament side.

How to Play Craps

A round has two phases, and once you have those, the rest of the table makes sense.

1. The come-out roll. Place a Pass Line bet before the shooter rolls. A 7 or 11 wins immediately. A 2, 3 or 12 loses, and that result is called craps. Any other number becomes the point.
2. The point phase. The shooter keeps rolling. If the point number appears again before a 7, the Pass Line wins. If a 7 comes first, it loses and the dice pass on.

The Don't Pass bet is the mirror image, winning where Pass loses, with the 12 pushing rather than winning. Once a point is set, you can back your line bet with an odds bet, which is paid at true odds and carries no house edge at all. That makes it the single best wager available in any casino game, and it is the main reason experienced players keep their line bet modest and their odds bet large.

Come and Don't Come bets work exactly like Pass and Don't Pass but start on the next roll, letting you have several numbers working at once.

Tips and Strategy

Craps strategy is mostly a matter of bet selection. The table offers dozens of options, and the difference between the best and worst is enormous.

Stick to the low-edge bets

Pass, Don't Pass, Come and Don't Come sit at a house edge between 1.36 and 1.41 per cent. Place bets on 6 and 8 are reasonable at about 1.5 per cent. Everything in the middle of the layout, including the single-roll proposition bets and Any 7, costs many times more and should be treated as a novelty rather than a plan.

Maximise the free odds

Back your line bet with the largest odds bet the table allows. Because the odds portion pays true odds, increasing it lowers your overall house edge across the combined wager without adding any built-in disadvantage.

Size your bets for the pace

A busy table can produce well over a hundred rolls an hour, and several of your bets may be live at once. Work out your total exposure per round rather than per bet, and keep it to a small fraction of your session budget.

Ignore the trend talk

Dice have no memory. A shooter on a long run is not more likely to hit the next point, and a cold table is not due. Our guide to playing craps like a pro goes deeper on bet selection.

Bonuses, Banking and Fair Play

Craps interacts awkwardly with casino promotions, so check the terms before you assume an offer applies.

• Contribution rates: table games often count for a reduced share towards wagering requirements, and some bonus terms exclude craps entirely.
• Opposing bets: covering both Pass and Don't Pass to clear a bonus is usually prohibited and can void the offer.
• Payment options: most platforms now support both card and crypto banking, with withdrawal times varying widely between them.
• Certification: software craps should use a tested random number generator, and the certification details are normally listed in the site's fairness or licensing section.

For the crypto side specifically, see our piece on Bitcoin and crypto craps casinos.

Practising Before You Stake

Craps rewards familiarity more than most casino games, simply because there is so much on the layout. Free-play tables let you learn where the chips go and how the dealer resolves each phase without paying for the lesson.

Start by playing nothing but the Pass Line for a few dozen rounds until the two phases feel automatic. Add odds bets next, then Come bets, and stop there. Most winning craps players never use more of the table than that.

Set a budget before each session, decide the point at which you will cash out, and stick to both. Craps is entertainment for adults aged 18 and over, the house edge never disappears, and no betting pattern turns a negative expectation into a positive one.