An Introduction to the Proposition Bets Available in Craps

Craps is well-known for being one of the most complicated casino games that there is. This happens because there are so many different types of bets that it’s almost impossible to keep up with all of them. The proposition bets are one class of bets that “advanced” players tend to learn about sooner or later, but what happens to most players is that they learn just enough to get themselves in trouble. We want to show you what these bets are all about and what you need to do to make sure that you don’t trick yourself into a sucker bet.

There are three main groups of proposition bets. The first is called a hard prop bet, and this is basically a bet on any single total that can only be rolled one way like a 2 or a 12. This typically pays at 33:1 under the best circumstances with a 5.56 percent house advantage. The mistake is taking this bet at odds worse than this which happens at a lot of online casinos because the bets aren’t always listed in a way that’s obvious unless you look hard for the payout because there are so many craps bets. Even at 32:1, the house advantage jumps up to 8.33 percent, and it only gets worse from there.

The easy prop bets are when you have two ways to make a specific total like for 3 or 11, and at odds of 16:1, you’ll have the same 5.56 percent house advantage that’s as good as it gets most of the time. You’re often going to run into situations where the odds are worse, and you shouldn’t take it. The reason is that even at just 15:1, which is only slightly worse odds, the house advantage jumps to an overwhelming 11.11 percent.

The final major prop bet that you’ll run into is a bet on any seven. This is a bet that’s easy to understand, so it’s something that a lot of newer players sometimes wager on, but it’s a pretty bad mistake. The reason is that this typically pays out at just 4:1, so it has an incredibly large house edge of 16.67 percent. There are plenty of other ways to wager in craps with similar payouts when you win but with much better house advantages, so be really careful when playing with proposition bets in this game.