The Free Odds Bet: The Only Wager on the Table With No House Edge
Every bet on a casino table is priced. The house keeps a percentage, the percentage is known, and over enough repetitions it is the only thing that matters. Craps has one exception, and it is hiding in plain sight on the layout: the odds bet, which carries a house edge of exactly zero.
It is the only wager of its kind on a casino floor, and most players either do not use it or do not understand why it exists.
How it works
You start with a pass line bet before the come-out roll. If the shooter rolls a point - 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 - that number must repeat before a seven appears for you to win.
Once the point is established, you may place an additional bet behind your pass line wager. This is the odds bet, and it pays at the true mathematical odds of the point repeating:
| Point | Ways to make it | Ways to seven out | Odds paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 or 10 | 3 | 6 | 2 to 1 |
| 5 or 9 | 4 | 6 | 3 to 2 |
| 6 or 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 to 5 |
Look at what that table says. A point of 4 has three ways to be rolled against six ways to roll a seven - so it is twice as likely to lose as to win, and it pays exactly 2 to 1. The payout precisely matches the probability. No margin.
Why a casino offers a zero-edge bet
Because it is an add-on, not a standalone. You cannot walk up and bet odds - you must first place a pass line bet, which carries a house edge of about 1.41%.
What the odds bet does is dilute that edge across a larger total wager. Your pass line bet still loses 1.41% on average; the odds portion loses nothing. So the blended edge on your combined money falls as the odds portion grows:
- Pass line alone: ~1.41%
- Pass line plus 1x odds: ~0.85%
- Pass line plus 2x odds: ~0.61%
- Pass line plus 5x odds: ~0.33%
The casino is not being generous - it is accepting a thinner margin on more money, which is a perfectly good trade for them. But for the player it means the single most effective thing you can do at a craps table is take maximum odds behind a pass line bet, and avoid almost everything else.
The bets to avoid, and why they look attractive
The centre of the layout - the proposition bets - is where the edge lives. Any seven pays 4 to 1 with a house edge around 16%. The hard ways run 9% to 11%. The "big six and big eight" are notoriously bad versions of bets available elsewhere on the table at better prices.
These bets exist because they are exciting and pay in a single roll. They are priced accordingly.
The gap between what a bet feels like and what it costs is the whole design of a casino floor, and recognising it is a transferable skill. It is the same relationship as the insurance bet in blackjack, which is sold as protection and is simply a bad price - Play Blackjack and the published chart says never take it, and players take it anyway because it feels prudent.
Don't pass, and why nobody plays it
The mirror bet - don't pass - has a slightly lower house edge, around 1.36%, and also accepts odds (laying them rather than taking them).
Almost nobody plays it, for social rather than mathematical reasons: you are betting against the shooter and therefore against the rest of the table. Craps is the only casino game with a genuine crowd dynamic, and the don't pass bettor is rooting for the moment everyone else groans.
That is a real and rather charming fact about the game - the mathematically marginally better bet is unpopular because it is rude.
Where the skill actually is
Let us be honest about the category. You cannot influence the dice. There is no sequence to read, no opponent to out-think, no board to manage. The skill in craps is entirely bet selection, and bet selection is a solved problem: take the line bets, maximise odds, ignore the middle.
That makes it a useful reference point for what games with genuine decisions feel like. In a dice game where you at least choose what to keep, the allocation problem is real - take Yahtzee online: the dice are equally uncontrollable but you decide where the result goes, and that single added choice creates a whole strategy.
And in a game where randomness resolves once and then stops entirely, the skill becomes pure problem-solving: play FreeCell online and the deal is the only random event, after which every loss is traceable to a decision you made.
Craps sits at the far end of that spectrum, and knowing where a game sits is worth more than any system anyone will try to sell you.
On systems
Briefly, because it comes up: no betting progression changes the house edge. Doubling after losses, pressing after wins, the Iron Cross, the 3-Point Molly - these are ways of distributing your bets over time, and the edge applies to every bet individually regardless of order or size.
What progressions do change is the shape of your results: some make small wins frequent and large losses rare but catastrophic, others do the reverse. That is a preference about variance, not an improvement in expectation. Choosing a variance profile deliberately is legitimate; believing it changes the maths is not.
Elsewhere in the family
Crapless Craps removes the come-out loss on 2, 3 and 12, which sounds like a gift and raises the pass line edge to about 5.4%, because 2, 3, 11 and 12 all become points that are very hard to repeat. It is the single best demonstration on this site that a rule which removes a way to lose can still be worse for you.
New York Craps removes come bets and charges commission on box numbers. Simplified strips the layout to the line bets, which is genuinely the best place to learn. High Point and Die Rich alter the resolution rules substantially.
Worth ten minutes
Play a session of Simplified Craps using only the pass line and maximum odds, and nothing else. It is the lowest-edge way to play the game and, once the noise of the centre bets is removed, it is also the clearest way to see what the game actually is.
The rules hub covers the layout and every variant, the odds FAQ has the numbers, the beginner bets guide is a good companion, and the glossary names everything on the felt. Everything here is play money - there is no real gambling on this site.
For what happens to the game when the rules around seven change, see the companion piece.
🎲 Put it into practice: roll at a free craps table, brush up on the rules, or take on the daily challenge.