Craps Odds & House Edge

Don't pass or don't come at 1.36%, marginally better than pass/come at 1.41%. That is the per-bet-made comparison, which is the one every craps table prints. Counted per settlement instead, the two are 1.40% and 1.41% and the gap nearly closes, so the don't side is a small improvement rather than a decisive one either way. Backing either with maximum odds lowers the blended edge on your total stake further: at a 3-4-5x table the pass line blends to about 0.37% and the don't pass to about 0.27%. The calculator prices both sides, and it prints what each costs to hold, because the don't side's lower percentage is bought with more money on the table. On a $10 line bet at 3-4-5x the pass bettor has $40 to $60 out once a point is set and the don't bettor has $70 on every point, to win less.

Once a point is set you can lay odds behind a don't pass the same way a pass bettor takes them, at true odds and with no commission. Because you are the favorite at that stage you have to lay more than you stand to win: 2 to 1 against the 4 or 10, 3 to 2 against the 5 or 9, 6 to 5 against the 6 or 8. What a table's advertised multiple means on that side is a house rule and the two readings are not close. Wizard of Odds states one of them as a maximum on the amount won ("you may bet up to an amount such that a win would be no more than 5X the Don't Pass bet"); the widely documented 3-4-5x rule states the other as a maximum on the amount laid, at 6x the flat bet on any point. At 3x those two readings give 0.34% and 0.45% from the same table sign, so the calculator asks which one your table uses rather than picking for you. The 3-4-5x case needs no choice: laying 6x on any point is the same wager as laying to win 3x, 4x or 5x by point, so both readings land on one bet and one figure.

No, and the two sit on the same page here, so it is worth separating them. A lay bet is a standalone wager against a number that pays true odds less a 5% commission, and that commission is the entire house edge on it. Odds laid behind a don't pass carry no commission at all. They are the same fair wager the pass side gets, taken from the other end, and the house takes nothing on them. If a dealer asks you for a vig on odds behind the line, that is not the bet you asked for.

Because the house bars one come-out total on the don't side, the 12 on most tables, and a barred total pushes rather than winning. The two figures put that push in different places. Count every come-out you put money up on, pushes included, and the don't pass is 1.36%. Count only the 35 in 36 come-outs that actually settle, and it is 1.40%. It is the same bet and the same arithmetic, divided by two different denominators, and neither site is wrong. This page prints 1.36% in the table because that is the convention a craps table prints, and prints the 1.40% beside it so the comparison with any other source is checkable rather than confusing. A table that bars the 2 instead of the 12 gives exactly the same figures.

No. The pass line is still 1.41% and the odds bet is still 0%. What changes is the average edge across your combined wager, because you now have more money in action at a fair price. Per dollar risked, you lose less.

They pay less than the true odds by a wide margin and they resolve every roll, so the edge compounds fast. Any seven at 16.67% means that for every 100 units bet on it you lose about 17, roll after roll.

Per bet resolved is the average loss each time the bet settles, which is what a published craps table prints. Per roll divides that by how many rolls the bet is in action for, so it prices time at the table rather than settlements. A one-roll bet like the field or any seven has the same number for both. A pass line bet takes about 3.4 rolls to settle and a place bet on the 4 takes four, so their per-roll cost is a quarter to a third of their printed figure. Comparing a one-roll bet with a multi-roll one on the printed figure alone overstates how close they are.

On the figure a table prints, yes: the field is 2.78% with the 12 paying 3:1, against 6.67% to place the 4 or 10. Per roll of the dice it is the other way round. The place bet is in action for four rolls at a time and costs 1.67% of each, and the field settles every roll at 2.78%. If the house pays only 2:1 on the 12, the field doubles to 5.56% on both measures.

It depends on your setup and the table's pace, and the two multiply together rather than add. A $10 pass line with 3-4-5x odds costs about 0.37% of your action alone, which sounds close to nothing, and by itself it is: about $5.66 an hour at a typical full table's 135 rolls (7 players, sourced below). Add $30 working on the 6, a common real setup, and the blended figure rises to about 0.89% of a much larger total wager, roughly $24 an hour, because the place bet's 1.5% edge on its own $30 outweighs the odds bet's near-zero cost on a bigger stack of money. The setup panel above computes this for whatever you're actually playing rather than making you add percentages that do not combine linearly. A slower table lowers the dollar figure without changing the percentage; a faster one raises it the same way.