Understanding the House Edge

When discussing some basic strategies and different aspects of craps I will make references to the HOUSE EDGE.  So, what is the House Edge?  The House Edge is how the Casino guarantees they will win in the long run, it's their built-in advantage.  Of course, when you make a losing wager, the House collects that wager, but when you make a winning wager, the House pays you LESS than what you should be getting according to the statistical TRUE ODDS (except when you make an Odds bet in craps, they actually pay you the true odds when you win, which is why you need to take advantage of that bet).  Simply put, the House Edge is the difference between the True Odds and the odds the Casino pays you when you win.  Let me give you a great and simple to understand example of the House Edge......


If you sit down at a Roulette table you will notice it has 36 Red/Black numbers and 2 Green 0/00 (we will assume it's an American Roulette table, European tables have only 1 Green 0), for a total of 38 possible numbers.  If you bet a single number straight up, the True Odds are 37-1 (37 numbers would lose your wager while the one number you bet would be a winner for you).  The Casino actually pays out at 35-1.  If you bet $1 and win, you will get to keep the original $1 and the Casino will pay you an additional $35, a total of $36 you would get back. If you were to bet $1 on every possible outcome, instead of coming out even, you would lose money.  So, what's the House Edge here?  Well, you take the difference between what the return should have been and what it actually is (38-36=2) and divide the result of 2 by the True Odds of 38 and you get the House Edge of  5.26%.


If you know me, or at least read my blog, you know I advocate always taking the Odds bet on the Pass Line and Come bets in Craps.  The reason is by getting True Odds on these bets, the House Edge will be reduced.  How much that House Edge is depends on how much you can either afford or are allowed to put down.  

COMBINED HOUSE EDGE ON THE PASS LINE AND TAKING ODDS

Odds                       House Edge

1X                             0.848%

2X                             0.606%

Full Double Odds       0.572%

3X                             0.471%

3-4-5X                      0.374%

5X                             0.326%

10X                           0.184%

20X                           0.099%

100X                         0.021%

"Full Double Odds" means the Player can take 2.5 times odds on points of 6 or 8 and 2 times on all other points.  "3-4-5X" means the Player can take 3X odds on points of 4 or 10, 4X on points of 5 or 9, and 5X on points of 6 or 8.

Maximum allowable odds are posted at every table or just ask the Dealers.  Hope this info helps you out, see you at the table!

WORK HARD, PARTY HARDER!!!!!!!