Best Las Vegas Craps

Best Craps in Las Vegas

Our top choice for Las Vegas craps is Main Street Station (Downtown) because its 20X odds are near the top for Vegas and it is a pretty good casino overall with a strong microbrewery and a decent buffet. Sam’s Town is a very close second because it also has good odds and offers some unique exotic bets that the lottery oriented gambler might like.

Casino Royale on the Strip has the best odds in Las Vegas with both a 20X $3 table and a 100X $5 minimum table. For low rollers with a car, either Railroad Pass and Eldorado in Henderson offer $1 craps.

Of the high end casinos, Venetian, Bellagio and Mirage are very strong for dealers and facilities. However, they only go up to 3-4-5X which is the Strip standard. For locals or visitors with a car who like to place the 4 and 10, Texas Station allows you to combine buys for the 4 and 10. Gold Coast is also 4 and 10 friendly but has 5X odds versus the 10X at Texas Station.

Our book recommendations are Beat The Craps Table! which is more an introduction to craps and slang. This book does not advocate bizarre betting systems, is very level headed, and one of the cheaper books as well. For craps as an Advantage Player, we recommend Wong on Dice because it is less promotional of Dice Influencing (DI) or Rhythm Rolling techniques than others. Stanford Wong, author, is a respected mathematician and expert gambler.  You can click on these red underlined links--sorry about the non-standard color.

Las Vegas Craps Overview

Greater Las Vegas has 297 craps tables in 75 casinos. The most popular game rules are 3-4-5X odds. Almost 47% of the Craps in Las Vegas use 3-4-5X odds with 10X the next popular at about 18% of the craps games.

The commission for buying the 4 and 10 is paid only if you win at most casinos. On the Strip, the proposition odds are even less favorable elsewhere although these are bets that should be avoided anyway.

Although not a good bet for the player, the Fire bet including Sam’s Town unique version is offered at 12 casinos in the greater Vegas area. This allows the Craps bettor a shot of up to $5,000 for a $5 side bet.

Craps Odds

The best bets in craps are the pass, don’t pass, come and don’t come bets. For the total amount bet, the Odds portion should be as large as possible.

However, taking maximum odds at Casino Royale involves a $505 total commitment per bet which may be more than most bankrolls. If you can afford big odds bets, this is the undisputed best craps in town.

Main Street Station (Boyd’s not Station casinos) is the best downtown craps casino because of its 20X odds and good ambiance. It is brighter and nicer than most downtown casinos with their buffet and microbrewery big advantages. If you are a very high roller downtown, the Golden Nugget has a $5K bet limit versus only $1K at Main Street but Golden Nugget is only 3-4-5X.

At the major strip properties, the odds are universally 3-4-5X. This means you can go up to 5X for Points of 6 and 8, up to 4X for Points of 5 and 9 and up to 3X for Points of 4 and 10. You can always bet less or take no odds whatsoever although if you want to put a certain amount of money in action, you should try to skew it towards odds as much as possible.

Venetian has slightly better comps than most high end casinos although Mirage and Bellagio have excellent facilities. With the slightest preference for the Venetian, if staying at Bellagio or Mirage, there is definitely no reason to go elsewhere unless you are willing to travel for better odds and rules.

All Harrah’s offer the Fire bet except for Caesars and they also want the commission for buying the 4 and 10 up front. O’Sheas (also owned by Harrah’s through their Hilton ownership) allows the late pay if you bet at least $25 when buying the 4 and/or 10. Except for O’Sheas, the Harrah’s properties have the least favorable rules for Craps. It is better to buy the 4 and 10 and only pay the commission if you win.

Red Rock and Green Valley are standard 3-4-5X casinos while Texas and the other Stations casinos are 10X. For a casual local or tourist with a car, Texas Station and Sam’s Town are very good craps joints.

Many casual craps players are very active bettors with a pass line bet with odds combined with placed numbers. Personal observation has about 3/4 betting some place numbers such as “Inside” or “Across” rather than just pass with odds and come bets. Because many bettors like action, a factor for them is favorable rules.

At most casinos, placing bets on the 4 and/or 10 is a poor percentage play with a 6.67% house edge. However, if you can buy the 4 and 10 and only pay commission if you win, the edge drops to 1.67% which is borderline acceptable. If you have to pay the commission before hitting the 4 or 10, the advantage for the casino is a large 4.76%.

Someone placing 6 and/or 8 and buying the 4 and/or 10 will have a lot of action at -1.584% which is about the same as a blackjack player with the super fun rules. Texas Station and the Gold Coast allow you to combine 4 and 10 buys for better action at lower bet minimums. Gold Coast even alternates the commission payment so it is the best casino for those who like to play the 4 and 10.

If you like big house edge exotic bets, there are 12 casinos with a “Fire” or similar bet. The casino with the best exotic bet is Sam’ Town. Fire bets require hitting at least 4 different points in the same hand for up to a 999X payout if all 6 are hit.

Sam’s Town has an all numbers (before rolling a 7) bet that goes up to 174X as well as low numbers and high numbers (before a 7) for 34X. These are not Points (Points are rolled twice, once on the Comeout, and again to win)—just one roll counts for Sam’s Town.

Bet Size

The lowest bet size is $1 at Eldorado and Railroad Pass. Some of the other casinos that had been under $5 have bumped up to $5 which is now the Vegas average minimum craps bet. If you are staying on the Strip and would like to play for lower stakes, try off hours and mid-week when limits might be relaxed. Otherwise Strip minimums are $10-$15.

Most of the big strip casinos go up to $5,000 but this limit is flexible. MGM has about 20 tables (16 regular use) with 4 high roller tables where the odds and limits can vary a lot depending on what the casino is comfortable with for any particular player. Any of the major properties will work with you if you are a whale.

Comps

You must be a $25 minimum player at most Strip casinos to qualify for comps. Craps players build up comps slower than almost any other game unless you play the very high margin proposition bets which Vegas Made Easy.com does not recommend because they carry casino Edges of up to 16.67% for a single roll of the dice. Some casinos like Gold Coast do comp slightly for Odds bets but you should not expect much.

On rare occasion, players will comp other players. If your roll is especially long and profitable, they may acknowledge you with applause and chips. Some of these bonuses have been several hundred dollars or more. Don’t bettors never tip for short rolls and may even sneer while your bets are taken down as they are being paid.

Getting Started in Craps

Craps can be intimidating to a new player because of the slang and apparent complexity of the game. However, it is often the most fun of all the casino games and worth learning.

If you want to get started, try the Pass line and/or Come bet with odds. Here are 25 tips that will come naturally to you when you are at the table after reading this once or twice.

1. Craps tables have a stickman in the middle in the front of the table with usually 2 dealers and a boxman behind the table.

2. A huge amount of chips are stacked in front of the boxman—hopefully they will all be yours shortly. To the left or right of the chips are the posted minimum bets for that table.

3. When the stickman has the dice, buy-in for your chips by placing your money in the area marked Come and say “change, please”.

4. Towards the back of the table, you will see boxes with the numbers:

4 5 Six 8 Nine 10

5. If you see a hockey puck with ON sitting on one of those numbers, it means that you are in the middle of a roll and that number is the Point. If the hockey puck says OFF, you are at the start of a roll.

6. If you get the chips quickly, you might be able to bet right away.

7. However, if the stickman has passed the dice to the shooter, wait for the roll to finish. If you try to bet and the dice hit your hand, a Seven-Out will cause the other bettors to make unkind comments about your genetic heritage.

8. If you are on a Comeout roll (the puck will say OFF) then place your bet in front of between 2 parallel lines that almost ring the table. It will say Pass. The table minimum bet is usually a good place to start.

9. Pass bets win immediately if the next roll is a 7 or 11. If it is a 2, 3 or 12 you lose immediately.

10. If the next roll is any of the six possible Points (4,5,six, 8, nine or 10) then the shooter keeps rolling until either the Point is repeated or a 7 is rolled.

11. If your Pass line bet loses, the Stickman might say “Line down, pay the Don’ts and last Come”. The dealer will take your chips. You don’t need to hand them or throw them at the dealer.

12. Should the Point repeat before a 7 is rolled, the dealer will place your winnings near your wager. You must pick them up unless you want to parlay your winnings.

13. The Pass line bet is a contract bet which means you can’t bet on just the Comeout roll and if a Point rolls, pick it up and leave.

14. The Don’t Pass bet is NOT a contract bet. After the Comeout roll, you can pick it up if you want and walk away although that is a bad play.

15. In the tables below, you can see the probabilities. If you don’t care, just skip them. The reason the casinos make Pass a contract bet is because you will win over $1.11 per $10 bet on the Comeout on average. You lose about $1.25 on a $10 bet trying to make the Point. On a weighted average, you make a Point 40.6% of the time.

16. For the Don’t Pass, you lose almost $1.39 on the Comeout for a $10 bet. However, when Points are set, you win about $1.25 for each $10 bet. This is why casinos allow you to pick up your Don’t Pass but not your Pass bets.

You are a big favorite once a Point is set but because you don’t get paid on a 12 and the 7 wins on a Comeout, you can’t get to the House advantage even though you are seemingly taking the casino’s side as a Don't bettor.

17. These tables show that 1/3 of the rolls are either Craps or a 7 or 11 winner. On 2/3 of the rolls, you will set a Point.

18. The Pass line bettor loses about $0.28 for each Point of a 4 or 10 that is set. The Don’t Pass bettor wins almost $0.13 whenever the Point is a six or an 8 on a $10 bet.

19. If you have a set amount you would like to bet, you are usually better off betting the Pass line minimum and loading up on the Odds bet. The Odds or Free Odds is placed about 1 1/2 to 2” behind your Pass line bet.

20. The Odds bet is a perfectly fair bet with no casino advantage. You are a 6 to 5 underdog if you are trying to roll a 6 or 8 as a Point. However, you get paid 6 to 5 if you make it. You are a 2 to 1 underdog to make a 4 or 10 Point. The Odds payoff is 2 to 1 when the Point is 4 or 10. For a 5 or 9 you are 3 to 2 against making the Point but you get paid 3 to 2 if made.

21. You cannot overcome the casino advantage with a large Odds bet. On the money you wager, the overall casino advantage goes down but never reaches zero or negative.

22. At most Vegas casinos, the Odds bet is limited to 3X the Pass line bet when the Point is a 4 or 10 and 4X when 5 or 9 are Points and 5X when the 6 or 8 must be repeated.

23. If you don’t want to put very much money in play, just bet Pass (or Don't Pass).

24. Come bets are just like Pass bets except they are on their own cycle that starts when you place that bet even if the shooter has already rolled the Comeout roll. If the shooter immediately Sevens Out, you win because that was a Comeout roll for your Come bet.

25. This also means that if the shooter makes the Point, you don’t win because that has now become your Point to be repeated. If the shooter makes a 7 on his/her Comeout roll, the shooter wins but you lose because the 7 came before your Point.  Don't Come is the Don't version of the Come bet in reverse.