Free Odds: How to Place the Free Odds Bet
Here's something that sounds like a lie: there's a bet at every craps table with a zero percent house edge. None. The casino has no statistical advantage over you on it, because they pay it out at exactly the right amount based on the real probabilities. Over a long enough sample, you and the casino break even.
It's called free odds, and it's the single best bet you can make in any casino, better than blackjack with perfect basic strategy and better than anything else on the floor. It isn't advertised, there's no labeled box for it, and most casinos would rather you not make it. The only requirement is that you make a pass line or come bet first to qualify. If you've read our pass line article, you've already seen me hint at this; here we break it all the way down.
Why This Bet Exists at All
Why does a casino offer a bet they can't win money on? Because they tie it to the pass line bet, which they do have an edge on. To bet free odds, you must first have a pass line bet down. The casino is willing to let you ride money at zero edge on odds because they're getting their cut on the pass line itself, and they figure most players either won't know about free odds or won't bet enough to matter.
They're right about that. Most players don't max out their odds, and many don't bet odds at all. The bet is so quietly done, so invisible on the table, that you can play craps for years and never realize it exists if nobody tells you. The casino is fine with that. The smart move is to take it every single time.
How Free Odds Works
Once you have a pass line bet down and the shooter has set a point, you're eligible to take free odds. You take chips and place them just behind your pass line bet, in the empty space outside the line itself. There's no labeled box; the dealer sees you place them and knows it's a free odds bet on your pass line.
The odds bet wins if your pass line bet wins and loses if it loses. Same outcome, same trigger. The difference is what they pay: the pass line pays even money no matter the point, while free odds pays based on the actual probability of making the point. The bet is self-service, and unlike the pass line, you can pull free odds down at any time. They're not a contract bet. You almost certainly shouldn't, but the option is there.
What It Pays
The free odds bet pays at the true probability of making the point, with no house cut. The harder the point is to make, the more it pays.
| Point | Free Odds Pays | $10 Odds Wins |
|---|---|---|
| 4 or 10 (hardest) | 2 to 1 | $20 |
| 5 or 9 | 3 to 2 | $15 |
| 6 or 8 (easiest) | 6 to 5 | $12 |
The 4 and 10 are the hardest points, with only three ways each to come up before a 7, so they pay the most. The 6 and 8 are easiest, with five ways each, so they pay the least. These payouts are exactly the true odds of making each point against a 7, which is what makes this a fair bet. Compare them to place bets, whose payouts are slightly worse than true odds; that gap is where the casino's edge on place bets comes from. Free odds has no gap.
The Math, in Plain English
Take a point of 6. There are 5 ways to roll a 6 and 6 ways to roll a 7, so out of every 11 rolls that resolve the bet, you win 5 and lose 6. If you bet $10 on odds with a 6 point, the casino pays 6 to 5 on a win. Your 5 wins out of 11 pay $12 each, for $60 total. Your 6 losses cost $10 each, for $60 total. You win $60, you lose $60, you break even.
That's what zero house edge looks like. The same math works on every point. Take a 4: there are 3 ways to roll it and 6 ways to roll a 7, so out of every 9 resolved bets you win 3 and lose 6. The casino pays 2 to 1, so your 3 wins pay $20 each ($60) and your 6 losses cost $10 each ($60). Break even again. This is the only bet in the casino that works this way. Every other bet pays slightly less than true odds, and that difference is the house edge.
How Much You Can Bet
The casino limits how much odds you can take relative to your pass line bet. The most common structure today is 3x-4x-5x odds: up to three times your pass line bet on a 4 or 10 point, four times on a 5 or 9, and five times on a 6 or 8. So with a $10 pass line bet, that's up to $30 on a 4/10, $40 on a 5/9, and $50 on a 6/8.
This structure looks weird but there's a reason: maximum odds always pay the same total when the point hits, six times your pass line bet. Three times $10 at 2 to 1 is $60; four times $10 at 3 to 2 is $60; five times $10 at 6 to 5 is $60. The dealers can pay everyone the same way. Other casinos run 5x across the board, 10x, or even 100x at certain Vegas locations. The higher the multiplier, the lower your overall edge becomes when you take the maximum.
The Combined House Edge With Odds
When you combine a pass line bet with free odds, the overall house edge on your total bet drops dramatically. The casino still has 1.41 percent on the flat pass line portion, but the odds portion has zero edge, so the overall edge averages down across the combined bet.
Pass line with no odds is 1.41 percent. Add 1x odds and it drops to about 0.85 percent. 2x odds, about 0.61 percent. With 3x-4x-5x odds, about 0.37 percent. With 10x odds, around 0.18 percent. At 100x odds, barely above zero. Compare that to slots at 5 to 15 percent, roulette at 5.26 percent, and blackjack at 0.5 to 1 percent with basic strategy. With free odds maxed, you're playing a game with an effective edge below all of those, without memorizing strategy or counting cards. This is the whole reason craps is a smart game.
Why Most Players Don't Max Their Odds
If this bet is so good, why does almost nobody take full odds? A few reasons, none of them good. Bankroll size: maxing odds risks more per round, giving you fewer rounds to survive a cold streak, so players without the cushion take only 1x or 2x. Awareness: a lot of players just don't know the bet exists, because the casino doesn't advertise it. No labeled spot: people are conditioned to bet where there's a box, and free odds is just empty felt behind the line. Variance: odds increase your average bet size, so the swings get bigger in both directions, which some players don't like even though the long-term math favors them. Now you know better.
How to Take Odds at the Table
You have a pass line bet down. The shooter rolls the come out, say a 6, and the dealer flips the puck onto the 6 box. Now you're eligible. Take chips totaling the amount you want and place them on the felt directly behind your pass line bet, outside the line. The dealer acknowledges it; you don't need to say anything.
At a 3x-4x-5x table with a $10 pass line bet on a 6 point, the max is $50. If the shooter makes the 6, you collect $10 from the pass line and $60 from the odds (5 × $10 at 6 to 5), for $70 in winnings. If the shooter sevens out, you lose both. You can also take less than the maximum, but that leaves free money on the table in a probability sense. One note on small chips: some odds payouts produce fractional amounts, which casinos round down, putting a tiny edge back in their favor. To avoid it, bet odds in clean multiples: multiples of 5 on the 6 and 8, multiples of 2 on the 5 and 9, and any whole dollar on the 4 and 10.
Odds on Don't Pass and Come Bets
Don't Pass Odds
If you're betting the don't pass line, you can also take odds, but the math works in reverse. Don't pass bettors are in a favorable position once a point is set, so they lay odds rather than take them, meaning you put up more than you stand to win. On a 4 or 10 you lay 2 to 1 ($20 to win $10), on a 5 or 9 you lay 3 to 2, on a 6 or 8 you lay 6 to 5. The edge is still zero. Don't pass with full odds is just as good a bet as pass line with full odds. More in our don't pass article.
Come Bet Odds
The same odds bet exists for come bets. Once a come bet establishes a number, you can take odds on it with the same math and payouts. The mechanics differ slightly: you hand the chips to the dealer rather than placing them yourself. This is one of the bigger reasons to use come bets, since they let you have multiple numbers running with zero-edge odds attached to each. We cover it in the come bet article.
Should You Always Take Odds?
Yes. Always, as much as your bankroll comfortably allows. There's no scenario where not taking odds is the better play. The bet has zero house edge, so adding it only improves your overall odds. The only reason not to take it is if you can't afford to, and if you can't afford full odds at your table, you're at the wrong table.
Drop down to a smaller minimum so you can comfortably max your odds. A $5 pass line with $25 in odds is better strategy than a $10 pass line with no odds: same total exposure, but the smaller table lets you ride more of your money on the bet with no edge. This is the single best piece of strategic advice in all of craps. Most players do the opposite, betting big on the line and skipping the odds, leaving money on the table in a real and quantifiable way.
The Bottom Line on Free Odds
Free odds is the best bet in the casino. It pays at true odds, has zero house edge, and is available to any player with a pass line or come bet down. Taking it lowers your effective house edge across the entire wager, sometimes dramatically. If you only learn one strategic concept in craps, learn this one: pass line plus full free odds is the foundational play. Make it a habit every round, every shooter, and you'll outlast players who skip it. The next article covers the don't pass bet, the opposite of the pass line, with slightly better math but a different feel at the table.