One Way Craps

2 January 2024

By Frank Scoblete

Many casino players have deep in their hearts the intense desire to win money, loads of money, when luck comes a calling. Do they? Sometimes they might but overall losing is in their future.

It is extremely difficult to have good luck battling the house edges at the casinos’ games over time and time and time after time enough times to come out as the champion. It isn’t in the cards or the dice or the machines. These facts are the facts. Players ultimately lose.

The reality of the casino’s games is really quite simple; the house edge makes the casino almost impossible to beat over any decent length of time, much less tonight, this weekend and this week. Casino players know this in a clear, mathematical way or they at least sense it in some way or other. My sainted mother always used to say, “The casinos win because they are the casinos.” Simple and sweet and true.

Now I want you to come over to the craps table and check out the number of possible bets craps players can make. Yes, yes indeed, the game has an immense number of bets offered to the players. And let me tell you the majority of craps players make a minimum of several to an outlandish number of wagers all at once! I’ll repeat that – all at once!

Craps is a truly exciting game but craps players are somewhat fanatical, they believe they can beat the game even though (here it comes) the overwhelming majority of wagers have medium to extremely high house edges. Some of those edges rival the edges and even surpass the edges on most slot machines.

Is it possible to come out ahead in the long run betting so many bad bets? Nope. I’ll repeat that: Nope. High house edges mean high casino profits. Those bets tend to look good to some players because they give high paybacks but the higher the edge on a bet that bet is much more difficult to beat.

But there is one method of betting at craps that I like to recommend. It is for players who wish to have a decent chance to come home ahead. That’s “decent” not “definite.”

I gamble not to lose money as much as I gamble to make some money. To be in a position to do this I have to carefully bet my money and not give the casino a strong shot at emptying my pockets. I do this with one bet for one decision on the lowest house-edge bet at the game I am playing.

At craps, there are two bets a player can make that are okay in my book. Bet one is a “place” bet on the 6 or 8. Not both. Just one of them, 6 or 8. These are made in increments of $6. Bet low and just bet one of these bets. One hit and you are ahead. If you lose, you’ve only lost a single bet.

The second bet to make is a “pass line” or “come bet,” taking the odds on the bet when it gets up on a number. This is a premier bet at craps.

There you have it; one way craps. One bet, one number, period.

All the best in and out of the casinos!