Craps Place Bets

In many of my articles I refer to the house edge when discussing different casino bets. The house edge is how the casino makes money. They pay you less than the true odds when you win a bet. The only bet without a house edge is the Craps odds bet. I received an e-mail from a reader asking how the house edge was calculated for the Craps Place bets. Here is how to calculate the house edge for each place bet. You may have to refer to the dice combinations to understand the number of ways to roll each number.

Six and Eight
The house edge for the six and eight is 1.5 percent. There are five ways to roll a six and an eight and there are six ways to roll a seven. In this example we will place the six for $6 which pays us $7 when we win. There are five ways to win (rolling a 6) and six ways to lose (rolling a 7) for a total of 11 rolls that determine an outcome. Any other numbers rolled will not win or lose.

We bet $6 on the 11 outcomes ($6 x 11 = $66) for a total investment of $66. The five times that we roll a six we will win $35 ($7 x 5 = $35) plus we will get our initial $30 bet back ($6 x 5 = $30) for a total of $65. So we wager a total of $66 and get back $65 which means the casino wins $1 on this place bet.

Now if you divide casinos win of $1 by the total invested $66 you get a house percentage of 1.51 percent. ($1 / $66 = 1.51)

Five and Nine
The house edge for the five and nine is 4.0 percent. There are four ways to roll a five and a nine and there are six ways to roll a seven. In this example we will place the five for $5 which pays us $7 when we win. There are four ways to win (rolling a 5) and six ways to lose (rolling a 7) for a total of 10 rolls that determine an outcome. Any other numbers rolled will not win or lose.

We bet $5 on the 10 outcomes ($5 x 10 = $50) for a total investment of $50. The four times that we roll a five we will win $28 ($7 x 4 = $28) plus we will get our initial $20 bet back ($5 x 4 = $20) for a total of $48. So we wager a total of $50 and get back $48 which means the casino wins $2 on this place bet.

Now if you divide casinos win of $2 by the total invested $50 you get a house percentage of 4.0 percent. ($2 /$50 = 4.0 %)

Four and Ten
The house edge for the four and ten is 6.66 percent. There are three ways to roll a four and a ten and there are six ways to roll a seven. In this example we will place the four for $5 which pays us $9 when we win. There are three ways to win (rolling a 4) and six ways to lose (rolling a 7) for a total of 9 rolls that determine an outcome. Any other numbers rolled will not win or lose.

We bet $5 on the 9 outcomes ($5 x 9 = $45) for a total investment of $45. The three times that we roll a four we will win $27 ($9 x 3 = $27) plus we will get our initial $15 bet back ($5 x 3 = $15) for a total of $42. So we wager a total of $45 and get back $42 which means the casino wins $3 on this place bet.

Now if you divide casinos win of $3 by the total invested $45 you get a house percentage of 6.66 percent. ($3 /$45 = 606 %)

Now you know how to calculate the house edge for the Craps place bets. Remember these figures are based on the mathematical probabilities of rolling any given number.