Why Craps Odds Bets are Important
Taking advantage of craps odds bets is one of the most important things that you can do because they lower the house edge quite a bit. For example, the house edge on a pass line bet is normally 1.41%; however, if you were to lay 1x odds behind the pass line bet, the casino’s edge would drop down to 0.848% for the total wager. As you can see, taking the odds is a very effective way to lower the house edge, and improve your chances of making money.
What’s nice about craps odds bets is that you can get an even bigger advantage by backing your wagers with bigger odds. For example, if you backed your pass line wager with a 2x odds bet, the house edge would be just 0.606%. Want an even lower casino edge? You can take 5x odds and drop the house advantage down to 0.326%.
Taking all of this into account, it definitely makes sense to back your regular craps bets with odds whenever you have the chance. Furthermore, you should look to play craps in casinos that enable you to back craps bets with odds. The average casino will let you back your wagers with 2x odds; but some places will make even bigger odds bets, and these are the casinos that you really want to play at!
Assuming you want to know more about placing odds bets, you can ask the dealer if they are accepted first, then tell the dealer that you want to back a wager with odds. Some craps tables even have designated spaces that tell you where to put the odds bets, and this makes it a lot easier to tell if you can make these bets.
It’s also worth mentioning that odds bets don’t technically lower the house edge on your original wager. For example, if you made a 2x odds bet on the same turn where you made a pass line wager, you aren’t lowering the 1.41% pass line house edge. Instead, you are lowering the overall bet that you’re making because the house has no edge on odds bets. So basically, you are making a 50-50 wager with the casino when you place a craps odds bet.