More Disadvantages: Craps

15 February 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Right off the bat. Is craps the most exciting game in the casino? So many players believe this – especially craps players! I mean you do hear a lot of sound coming from the craps tables when things are getting hot. You don’t hear too many sounds coming from blackjack or most other tables whether players are winning or not.

ABBY: Yes, you even hear moans and groans coming from craps tables when things aren’t going so well. I think that might be that many or most or all of the players are basically betting on the shooter to make his points and other numbers and it is a kind of communal situation.

CINDY: All for one and one for all?

ABBY: That might just be it.

CINDY: The craps table does look something like a primitive altar. And the players are a part of that tribe all attending their sacred ceremony. Something like that anyway.

ABBY: Craps is a deceiving game too. It has so many bets that players can make and here is the thing – most of the bets are bad bets with high house edges. In fact, some of the bets are worse than the worst slot machines with double digit edges and a few in the 20 percent range. That is just awful for the players.

CINDY: You have a few really great bets and if those are the only bets you make at the game you will have a close, a very close, contest against the casino.

ABBY: The worst bets are the ones that have great payouts for winners because those payouts do not reflect the true probabilities of the wager. They seem like a great gamble but in fact they are not.

CINDY: So, if you are the type of craps player who likes to bet those terrible bets then you are asking for a fall, a big fall, because it is impossible to beat them in even a small period of time. You can’t escape that fact.

ABBY: Here is another thing to consider about craps, even good bets have built in problems that go even further than just worrying about a house edge grinding away at you. The good bets have small grinds; the bad bets have big grinds. But here is the hidden problem: Craps players, even the ones who make the few good bets, tend to make multiple bets.

CINDY: The more bets you make, the more bets you have to win to be ahead of the game. Picture this: A player has a line bet [pass line with odds] and also several come bets and he or she places the 6 and 8 as well. So maybe that player has five or six bets riding at once.

ABBY: And the shooter sevens-out quickly! So, all those bets could be losers.

CINDY: Now what if the player also made a bunch of crummy bets as well? Can you imagine how much of the player’s money is tied up on each roll of the dice? Now the new shooter takes the dice and the player goes up on a bunch of numbers again. The player has to make plenty of hits just to get even.

ABBY: Get a second bad roll and the number of winning bets becomes tough to make. That is the hidden disadvantage of craps. You have to be cautious in how many bets you make.

CINDY: Forget the high house-edge bets and go with the low house-edge bets

ABBY: But keep the total number of bets on each and every shooter, including yourself, small so that a bad streak becomes possible to overcome.

CINDY: Craps is a great game when played correctly. And it is a lot of fun too!