Offshore apps, live-dealer tables in four states, and floor-side bubble machines all carry the same split: line bets among the cheapest anywhere, props among the priciest.
- The pass line carries a 1.41% house edge and don’t pass 1.36%, among the best bets on any floor.
- Backing either with a free odds wager adds money the casino has no edge on at all.
- A single-roll any-seven bet bleeds 16.67%, roughly the worst deal in the room.
- Americans can roll offshore online, at regulated live-dealer tables in four states, or on bubble-craps machines.
LAS VEGAS – Craps has quietly spread past the felt table into offshore apps, regulated live-dealer studios, and the electronic “bubble” machines multiplying on casino floors, and across all three the math holds: the line bets are among the finest wagers in the building, while the single-roll props are among the cruelest.
Three ways to shoot
Where a player can shoot comes down to geography, the through-line of our legal craps coverage. The simplest route is offshore online, where sites like Bovada and BetOnline run computerized (RNG) craps, and a handful of offshore rooms now stream live-dealer tables from a real felt. That is the only option in most of the country, and our real money online craps coverage tracks who offers what.
Inside the regulated market, live-dealer craps now streams to phones and laptops in four states. Evolution, the studio that supplies the game, runs it from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia, the only US casino markets where a real dealer calls the roll over a live feed.
In person, the fastest-growing option is not a table at all. Bubble craps, the domed electronic machine sold under names like Roll to Win, lets a player bet by touchscreen while real dice tumble under a plastic bubble. The rolls are as random as a thrown pair, and the machines are cheaper for the house to run, which is why they keep appearing on floors that pulled their live tables.
The good bets
The reason craps rewards a disciplined bettor is the front line. The pass line gives up just a 1.41% house edge, meaning the casino keeps a bit over a penny of every dollar resolved over the long run. Its mirror, don’t pass, is a hair better at 1.36%. Both sit near the floor of what any casino game will offer.
Then comes the wager with no house edge whatsoever. Once a point is set, a player can back the line with free odds, a bet paid at true mathematical odds where the casino’s cut is exactly zero. It is the only fair bet in the building, and, as we covered in craps’ only zero-edge wager, it is not even printed on the layout, so most players never take it.
The bad bets
The center of the table is where the money burns. The proposition bets stamped in the middle, hop bets, hardways, and the tempting any-seven, carry double-digit edges. A single-roll bet that the next throw is a seven gives up 16.67%, meaning the house expects to keep a sixth of the stake, roughly a dozen times worse than the line right beside it.
That contrast is the whole game in a number. The same table that offers one of gambling’s best bets also offers one of its worst, and they sit inches apart.
What bubble craps changes
The electronic version keeps the fair bets fair. Pass, don’t pass, come, don’t come, and free odds all pay exactly what a live table pays, as Casino.org documents. Where the machines quietly claw money back is the secondary bets: place bets on the 6 and 8 often pay 6-for-5 rather than the live table’s 7-to-6, and the field 12 frequently pays 2-to-1 instead of 3-to-1. A player who sticks to the line and its odds barely notices; one who scatters chips across the layout pays more than at the felt.