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Nothing Odd About "Odds" Bet

7 August 2022

QUESTION: I was looking at a chart of the craps house edge for pass plus odds. The edge keeps getting smaller the more odds you bet, so 0.8 percent with single odds, 0.6 percent with double odds and so on, all the way down to 0.02 percent with 100x odds.

How high would the odds bet have to be for the house edge to hit zero? Would the edge disappear at 200x? 500x? 1,000x? I recognize that if you bet $10 on pass, a 1,000x odds bet would be $10,000.

Players couldn't afford it and the house wouldn't want to fade it. But for a rich dude in a casino that will cover big bets, would the house edge disappear?

ANSWER: There is no zero point. Pass plus odds consists of two separate wagers: the pass line with a 1.41 percent house edge, and the free odds, which have zero house edge.

The edge on the combination is a weighted average of the 1.41 on pass and the 0 on the odds. That average must take into account the relative size of the two bets, so that if you're betting $10 on pass and 10 times that on the odds, the 0 percent on the odds counts for 10 times as much as the 1.41 on pass.

It also must reflect that on 12 of the 36 rolls, the pass bet is decided on the come-out roll. If the come-out is 7, 11 or one of the craps numbers -- 2, 3 and 12 -- the bet ends without a chance to bet odds.

For every 36 times you bet on pass, you average 24 odds bets. To calculate the edge on a pass plus single odds combo you'd multiply the 1.41 percent pass edge by 36 rolls, then add the zero for 24 rolls with odds. D Divide the total by 60 -- the 36 pass bets and 24 odds bets. So (1.41*36)/60 equals 0.008, which is 0.8 percent.

With double odds, the top half of the equation still boils down to 36*1.41 since the zero percent on the odds neither adds nor subtracts anything from the total. But in the bottom half of the equation, instead of odds bets being the size of 24 pass bets, they're equivalent to 48 odds bets. Add that to 36 pass bets, and the denominator becomes 84 instead of 60. So (1.41*36)/84 yields the 0.6 percent edge for pass plus double odds.

You can do that for any size odds bet. At 1,000x odds, the denominator would be 36 plus 24 times 1,000. But the top half of the equation, the numerator, remains 36 times 1.41. That house edge on pass is always there to be dealt with and it never becomes zero no matter how much you're dividing it.


QUESTION: Playing slots with friends, I found one that paid on lines from right to left as well as left to right. Do those pay more? Why aren't there more of them?

ANSWER: Such games pay no more than any others. Hit frequencies and payoff sizes are adjusted. The math of the games lead to the same target range of payback percentages as with other slots.

Game makers have experimented with both-ways payoffs for a couple of decades. If such games had been monster hits, manufacturers would have made sure there were a lot more of them. That both-ways games remain unusual tells us they haven't resonated strongly enough with players for any major movement by those who produce the games.
John Grochowski

John Grochowski is the best-selling author of The Craps Answer Book, The Slot Machine Answer Book and The Video Poker Answer Book. His weekly column is syndicated to newspapers and Web sites, and he contributes to many of the major magazines and newspapers in the gaming field, including Midwest Gaming and Travel, Slot Manager, Casino Journal, Strictly Slots and Casino Player.

Listen to John Grochowski's "Casino Answer Man" tips Tuesday through Friday at 5:18 p.m. on WLS-AM (890) in Chicago. Look for John Grochowski on Facebook and Twitter @GrochowskiJ.

John Grochowski Websites:

www.casinoanswerman.com

Books by John Grochowski:

> More Books By John Grochowski

John Grochowski
John Grochowski is the best-selling author of The Craps Answer Book, The Slot Machine Answer Book and The Video Poker Answer Book. His weekly column is syndicated to newspapers and Web sites, and he contributes to many of the major magazines and newspapers in the gaming field, including Midwest Gaming and Travel, Slot Manager, Casino Journal, Strictly Slots and Casino Player.

Listen to John Grochowski's "Casino Answer Man" tips Tuesday through Friday at 5:18 p.m. on WLS-AM (890) in Chicago. Look for John Grochowski on Facebook and Twitter @GrochowskiJ.

John Grochowski Websites:

www.casinoanswerman.com

Books by John Grochowski:

> More Books By John Grochowski