Winning Happily With Pass Line Bets
Many casino visitors gravitate to the craps table in part because of the fun and excitement that attends the game. But with 40 betting variations right there on the green baize, the casual player can be forgiven for naïvely piling his chips on those that offer really unfavorable odds in the first place.
A good place to start is the basic pass line bet. Although most casinos impose a minimum bet, the upside is that the house edge for a pass line wager is low at just 1.41 percent.
As it is usually played, the pass line is an even-money bet. First, you bet here on the result of a come-out roll. You win if the result is a 7 or 11 but lose if the come-out roll yields a 2, 3 or 12. The latter are called the "craps" numbers. A shooter who gets craps numbers forfeits his pass line bets but retains the hand or the privilege of rolling.
A second variation on regular pass line betting rests on the new shooter rolling all the other possibilities - the "box numbers" 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 - on his first or come-out roll. The dealer will designate this "point" number with a white puck. If the point occurs again before a 7 does, you win.
If the shooter does roll a 7 before getting the point, he "sevens out" and loses his turn at rolling. It is this little wrinkle that the Grand Victoria in Elgin, near Chicago, exploited to run its "Craps for Cash" promotion. The mechanics are simplicity itself: place the minimum pass line bet and collect a bonus of $4,000 if you make all six point or box numbers before rolling a seven-out. There are no hidden catches but no side wagers allowed either.
Since the casino tenders 100-times odds and a nearly insignificant 0.021 percent house advantage at full odds, "Craps for Cash" attracted enough serious players to collect the bonus no less than 316 times since it was launched in 2003. This is remarkable, considering that the collective probability of rolling all six points before a seven-out has been calculated at 1 over 6,156.
Player success varies in actual play, of course. The most successful ones have gotten the bonus in just 14 minutes (without rolling a seven) or as few as 10 rolls of the dice. And there was one serious player who retained the roll for more than an hour and managed to make every point, some more than once, except for the eight. Though he failed to earn the bonus, his winnings for multiple points were substantial. And so were those of others at the table content to place pass line bets.
In craps, the pass line an illustration of a relatively safe bet, because of the low house edge, that can actually yield good results. Be on the lookout for high-payout house promotions, such as those that offer a cash bonus for hitting all box numbers before rolling a seven-out.