Playing Craps Online

The first thing people need to remember when they’re playing craps online is to stick to line bets (Pass, Don’t Pass, Come, and Don’t Come) and take the maximum allowed odds. That will cut down on the house edge as much as possible. All other bets carry much higher house edges, especially the proposition bets.

The more a player can bet on the odds, the lower the overall house edge – regardless of whether they are at an online- or real casino.

That said, the best odds for the Pass and Come bets are at casinos using Boss Media software, where players can take 3x odds after any point. This is surprising, because Boss Media is usually rather stingy with their game rules.

The following table shows the odds allowed by various brands of online casino software and the combined house edge:

Interestingly, Realtime Gaming allows full double odds, in other words 2.5x odds on points of 6 and 8, and 2x on all other points.

In online craps, the player should be allowed to lay odds relative to the amount they can win. For example, if the casino normally allows 2x odds and the point is a 4, the player should be able to lay 4x the Don’t Pass bet on the odds. In this example, taking odds on a 4 pays 1 to 2, for winnings of 2x the Don’t Pass bet.

The only major software brand to get this rule correct is Unified Gaming. Most others only allow the player to lay odds in the same proportion as taking odds. Realtime Gaming has the curious exception of allowing the player to lay 2.4x odds on the 6 and 8, and 2x on all other points. It seems they started to get the rule right with the 6 and 8, but forgot to follow up on the other numbers.

After the odds are calculated, there is a tie between Boss Media and Unified Gaming for the best software for the Don’t Pass/Don’t Come bettor. The following table shows the specifics:

Another nice thing about Boss Media is that it only charges 5% commission on Buy and Lay bets if the player wins. This substantially cuts down the house edge, especially on the following Buy bets:

Unfortunately, none of the major online casino software manufacturers fully understand conventional gambling rules as played in the United States. Only some smaller companies who have retained my consulting services have ironed out their bugs to make their rules conform to U.S. standards.

In conclusion, Boss Media wins the prize for the best online craps. But this is the only game where it wins such a prize. An honorary mention also goes to Unified Gaming for laying odds correctly.