The Pass Line Bet In Craps - The Main Bet In Craps

If you only ever learn one bet in craps, learn this one. The pass line is the cornerstone of the entire game. It is the bet almost every player at the table is making at the same time. It is the bet that drives most of the cheering and groaning. It has one of the lowest house edges in the entire casino, beating out blackjack, beating out almost every other bet on the floor, and certainly destroying anything you would find on a slot machine.

It is also the simplest bet to understand. You drop a chip on the line. The shooter throws. You either win or you do not. There is nothing fancy about it. No dealer assistance required. No math you need to do at the table. The pass line is craps in its purest form.

If you have read our articles on the come out roll and the point and dice probability, a lot of this article is going to feel familiar. We are pulling everything together here and going deeper on the bet itself. This is the article to come back to anytime you want a refresher.

What the pass line bet actually is

The pass line bet is a bet on the shooter winning the round. You are betting with the shooter, not against them. When the shooter does well, you win. When the shooter loses, you lose. Everyone betting the pass line is on the same team.

Mechanically, you make the bet by putting your chips on the long curved strip running along the outer edge of the player area, the part of the table marked "Pass Line." You can only make this bet during the come out roll, when the puck on the table is showing the off side. Once a point has been established and the puck is flipped to on, you cannot make a fresh pass line bet for that round. You have to wait for the next come out roll.

Pass line is a self-service bet. You do not need to ask the dealer. You drop your chips down yourself during a moment between rolls, the dealer notes that you have a bet on the line, and you are in. When the bet wins, the dealer pushes your winnings next to your bet and you collect them yourself. The whole thing is hands-off compared to the more involved bets.

How the bet wins and loses

The pass line plays in two phases, just like every round of craps. The come out roll comes first, and either resolves the bet immediately or moves it into the point cycle.

On the come out roll, the pass line wins on a 7 or 11. Both of those are called naturals. You get paid even money, the bet stays on the line for the next come out, and the same shooter throws again. So if you bet $10 on the pass line and the shooter rolls a 7, you collect $10 in winnings and your $10 bet stays right where it is, ready for the next come out.

The pass line loses on the come out on a 2, 3 or 12. Those are called craps. The dealer sweeps your chips off the line. You can put another bet down for the next come out, and the same shooter keeps the dice. They do not give up the dice for crapping out. Only sevening out during a point cycle ends a shooter's turn.

If the come out is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, that number becomes the point. The dealer flips the puck from off to on and slides it onto the box for that number. Your pass line bet is now riding on the point. The shooter keeps throwing, and your bet wins if the point comes up again before a 7 hits. Your bet loses if a 7 comes first.

Once a point is set, the only two numbers that affect your pass line bet are the point itself and the 7. Every other roll does nothing to the line. The shooter could roll an 11, a 2, a 12, four other point numbers in a row, and your pass line bet just sits there waiting. The bet only resolves when one of those two numbers, the point or the 7, finally shows up.

What it pays

The pass line pays even money, also called 1 to 1. If you bet $5, you win $5. If you bet $25, you win $25. The bet itself stays on the line for the next round unless you pull it down or replace it.

Even money is a clean payout. There is no fractional math, no commission, no dealer doing weird things with chips. Whatever you bet, you win that same amount. This makes the pass line the easiest bet to manage and track. You always know exactly what you have at risk and exactly what you stand to gain.

This payout structure is the same regardless of how the bet wins. Win on a 7 on the come out? Even money. Win on an 11 on the come out? Even money. Win because the shooter made the point of 8? Still even money. The payout never changes. Compare that to the free odds bet behind the pass line, which pays differently based on what the point is. We will get there.

The math behind the pass line

This is the part that makes craps players geek out. The pass line has a house edge of about 1.41 percent. That is the casino's expected long-term profit on the bet, expressed as a percentage of every dollar you bet. For every $100 you put through the pass line over a long enough time, the casino expects to keep about $1.41.

That number is one of the lowest in the casino. Slots run anywhere from 5 to 15 percent, sometimes worse. Roulette runs at 5.26 percent on most American wheels and 2.7 percent on European wheels. Even blackjack, which is famous for having a low edge, only beats the pass line if you are using perfect basic strategy and the table rules are favorable. Many blackjack tables run a higher edge for the average player than the pass line does.

So how does the casino make money on a bet with such a small edge? Volume. A craps table with five players each making $10 pass line bets is putting hundreds of dollars in action every few minutes. Multiply that by every craps table in every casino, and a 1.41 percent edge adds up to real money. Just not at any given table on any given night, which is why craps players have such a fighting chance.

Where does that 1.41 percent come from exactly? Let me show you. There are 36 possible dice combinations. On the come out roll, you win immediately on 8 of them (7 and 11) and lose immediately on 4 of them (2, 3 and 12). The other 24 combinations set a point. Then you have to win against the 7 with that point.

If you do all the math, the pass line ends up winning 244 times out of every 495 resolved bets, and losing 251 times. That tiny gap, 7 fewer wins than losses out of nearly 500 bets, is where the 1.41 percent edge lives. The casino is not crushing you. They are taking a small slice of every bet, and that slice is small enough that a single session can easily go either way.

Why this bet is a big deal

The pass line gets a lot of credit because of its low edge, but it is more than just good math. It is also a clean bet that lets you participate in the heart of the game without overcomplicating things. You make one decision, place one chip, and you are along for the ride.

Compare that to the prop bets in the middle of the table, where you are constantly tossing chips at the stickman, calling specific bets, and watching them resolve in a single roll. Or the place bets, where you are managing five different numbers at once and trying to remember what is on and what is off. The pass line is just a bet. You make it once per round, you let it ride, and the table tells you what happens.

This simplicity is why it is the right bet for new players to focus on. You can stand at a craps table for an hour, only ever making pass line bets, and have a complete craps experience. You will win some, lose some, cheer with the table when a 7 hits on the come out, groan when a shooter sevens out. You will not have made a complicated bet all night. You will not have been confused by the action. And you will have played one of the smartest games available in the casino.

The come out advantage and the point disadvantage

The pass line bet is actually two different bets stitched together. The come out roll is one bet. The point cycle is another. The casino's edge comes from how those two pieces add up.

On the come out roll alone, the pass line bet is favorable to the player. There are 8 ways to win (7s and 11s) and only 4 ways to lose (2s, 3s and 12s). The remaining 24 combinations set a point, which is neutral on the come out itself but moves the bet into the next phase.

Once you are in the point cycle, the math flips against you. Now you are trying to roll a specific number before a 7. The 7 has 6 ways to come up. Your point has 3, 4 or 5 ways depending on which point it is. So during the point cycle, the dice favor a 7 over your point on every roll. The casino's edge on the bet, the 1.41 percent we mentioned, is what is left after the come out advantage and the point disadvantage cancel each other mostly out.

This is why the pass line is the bet it is. The come out roll gives you a head start. The point cycle takes most of it back. The slim difference between those two phases is the casino's profit. It is the closest you get in a casino to a fair game without actually being a fair game.

The contract bet rule

One thing to know about the pass line. Once a point has been established, you cannot remove or reduce the bet. This is called a contract bet. Your money is locked in until the round ends, either with the point hitting or with a 7.

The reason is that the pass line bet has two phases, as we just talked about, and the come out is more favorable to you than the point cycle. If the casino let you pull your bet after the come out, you would only ever leave it in play for the part where you have the advantage, and you would yank it back the moment the point was set and the math turned against you. The casino is not running a charity. So once the point is on, your money stays where it is.

This rule does not apply to free odds. You can take down your odds bet at any time. We will get to that bet next. But the basic pass line bet itself is locked in once the point flips to on.

What this means in practice is that you should not place a pass line bet you cannot afford to see all the way through. If you bet $50 and a point gets set, that $50 is committed for the rest of the round. You cannot bail. You will either win or lose it depending on what happens. This is also why some people only bet what they consider their pass line "unit" amount, leaving room to add free odds without overcommitting.

How to actually make the bet at the table

Walking up to a live craps table for the first time, here is the sequence for making a pass line bet.

First, find a table with an open spot. Wait for a moment between rolls. The puck should be on the off side, telling you a come out roll is about to happen.

If you are buying in for the first time, drop your cash on the felt, in the empty area in front of you, and say "change please." The dealer will count it out and give you chips. Do not put your money directly on the pass line yet, and do not hand cash to the dealer.

Once you have your chips, take one chip in the denomination you want to bet, and place it on the pass line in front of you. You want it on the line itself, in the area closest to where you are standing. The dealer will see it and know it is your bet.

Now wait. The shooter throws. You either win, lose or move into a point cycle. If you win on the come out, the dealer will push winnings next to your bet. Pick up the winnings yourself. The original chip stays on the line. If you lose, the dealer sweeps your chip off the line. Drop another chip down for the next come out if you want.

If a point gets set, your chip stays on the line and now you wait for the round to play out. The next thing to do is decide whether you want to take free odds, which is the bet right behind the pass line and which is covered in the free odds article. Spoiler: you do want to take odds. Always.

Online, the process is even simpler. Click your chip denomination, click the pass line, the bet is on. The software handles everything else. We compare the two formats in online vs live craps.

What to bet

Most live craps tables have a minimum bet posted on a placard at one end of the table. Five and ten dollar minimums are most common. Some Vegas Strip casinos run twenty-five dollar minimums or higher on busy nights. Some smaller casinos and downtown Vegas spots have three dollar tables.

Bet the minimum, or close to it, when you are starting out. There is no upside to risking more than you have to. The math on a $5 pass line bet is exactly the same as the math on a $50 pass line bet. The only thing that changes is how much you can win or lose. New players who start big tend to chase, get tilted, and run through bankrolls in 20 minutes. Bet small. Stay long. Get comfortable.

If the table minimum is more than you wanted to spend, walk away. There are other tables, or you can play online for a buck a hand. Do not stretch your budget to play a high minimum table. The bet has the same edge no matter what you bet, but your bankroll only stretches so far.

Once you are comfortable with the pass line, the way to bet smarter is not to bet bigger on the line itself, but to add free odds behind it. We get into that next.

What to do after your pass line bet

The pass line is a great bet on its own, but the smart play is always to follow it up with free odds once a point is established. Free odds is the only bet in the casino with zero house edge, and it is only available to players who already have a pass line bet down. The casino does not advertise it. They do not put a label on the table for it. They would prefer you not make this bet, because they cannot win money on it. But it exists, and you should always take it.

The combination of a pass line bet and full free odds reduces the overall house edge below 0.5 percent in most casinos, depending on how much odds you can bet. That is the lowest edge you will find on any combination of bets in the building. We have a full article on the free odds bet that walks through how it works and how much to take.

The pass line plus free odds is what serious craps players consider the foundational play. Everything else, place bets, come bets, hardways, the field, all of it is decoration on top of this core. Master these two bets and you have mastered the heart of smart craps.

What to avoid

A few things new pass line bettors do that I would tell you to avoid.

Do not pull your bet down after the come out roll if a point gets set. You cannot do this anyway because of the contract bet rule, but I am mentioning it because new players sometimes try to do this when they see the math turn against them. The math turning against you is part of the bet. The come out advantage you got is what you are paying for with the point disadvantage. Trying to escape only the bad half of the bet is what casinos would let you do if they thought you would do it. They do not, because nobody would.

Do not chase a cold table by increasing your pass line bets. If the shooter has been sevening out repeatedly, the dice do not owe you. They have no memory. The next round is just as likely to win or lose as any other round. Increasing your bets to try to win back losses is the fastest way to go broke. We talk more about this in common craps mistakes and bankroll management.

Do not skip free odds. I know I keep saying this, but it bears repeating. The pass line on its own is a fine bet. The pass line with free odds is a much better bet. The casino is not going to remind you about it. Make a habit of taking odds every time a point gets set.

Do not jump from the pass line to a bunch of place bets, hardways and prop bets just because you got bored. Boredom kills more bankrolls than bad luck. The pass line and odds are not exciting in the moment-to-moment sense. They are just the smart play. If you want more action, add a come bet for a second number working. Do not wander into the prop bets in the middle of the table looking for entertainment.

The pass line in plain language

Strip away all the math and all the jargon and the pass line is just this. You are betting that the shooter is going to win the round. The shooter wins by hitting a 7 or 11 right away, or by setting a point and then making it before a 7. You win when they win. You lose when they lose. The casino takes a small cut. That is it.

If you can hold that idea in your head, you have everything you need to play craps. Walk up to a table. Drop a chip on the line. Watch the dice. Cheer when they fall your way. Groan when they do not. Repeat. You are in the game.

The pass line will be the bet you make most often, by a wide margin, for as long as you play craps. It is worth taking the time to really understand it before adding any other bets to your repertoire. Once it feels natural, the next layer is free odds, which doubles your wager during the part of the round where the casino has the edge over you, and it does so at zero cost.