Crapless Craps

from The Wizard of Odds

This following information graciously provided by the Wizard of Odds, the most recognized authority on casino gaming and table
odds on the Net. The Wizard is a member of the Casino.com Hall of Fame, an adjunct
professor of gaming math at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and makes his living
consulting for land and Internet casinos and casino game developers.

Crapless Craps

by the Wizard of Odds

In my ten commandments of gambling I advise that you avoid gimmicks and this is
an illustrated example. The Stratosphere Casino in Vegas and some casinos in Mississippi
proudly boast of “crapless craps,” a craps variant in which the player can not lose
a pass bet on the come out roll. If any number other than a 7 is rolled on the come
out roll it becomes the point. What you are giving up is the sure winner of 11 on
the come out roll. To the mathematically challenged it may seem a good deal, that
you are only giving up 1 sure winner for 3 sure losers. The catch is that the probability
of hitting a point of 2 or 12 is only 1/7, and the probability of hitting a point
of 3 or 11 is only 1/4. So the player is not gaining much on the 2, 3, and 12 since
they will likely lose anyway, but is giving up a sure winner on 11 for only a 1/4
chance of winning. Overall the house edge on the pass bet in crapless craps is 373/6930
=~ 5.382%, compared to 1.41% in a real craps game.

Crapless craps does offer free odds of 6:1 on the 2 and 12, and 3:1 on the 3 and
11. The following table shows the combined house edge by combining the pass line
and the odds:

You can also make place bets on the 2, 3, 11, and 12. The 2 and 12 pay 11:2 with
a house edge of 7.143%. The 3 and 11 pay 11:4 with a house edge of 6.250%. There
is no don’t pass bet in this game.

Crapless Craps Story from The Bone Man

One night while standing on a dead craps table, graveyard shift at the Stratosphere,
Las Vegas, a customer came up and asked us if we could move over and open the Crapless
Craps table.

The boxman and night shift manager said sure, no problem, so the crew closed down
the regulation table and opened up Crapless Craps.

The player bought in for $500 and pretty soon at about 4:30 am other players started
joining in on the action.

The Player began his wagering by making $25 Pass Line and Come Bets and started
off conservative. His streak began early and pretty soon he started pressing by
placing maximum odds on his Pass Line and on all Come Bets. Pretty soon, with the
help of some hot rolls, he had filled all the numbers – 2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11 and
12 taking maximum odds.

By 7:30am or so he cashed out for $30,000.

As I was ready to take my scheduled 20-minute break at 7:40am I heard the boxman
say to the night shift manager, “Gee, maybe we shouldn’t have opened up Crapless
Craps for that guy.”

Well… Duh.

I would have liked to have seen the look on the player’s face though, when he tried
to cash in his chips and the cage asked him to fill out the tax form!

Point of Trivia

On a regular craps table when you refer to “Outside Numbers” you are referencing
the 5,9,4 and 10. But on a Crapsless Craps table, because the 3,11,2 and 12 are
also “Point Numbers” and boxes for these numbers are on the layout… the 3,11,2
and 12 are called “The Extreme Outside”. But the chances are that if you ever call
a combination bet to “Place the Extreme Outside” the dealer probably won’t even
know what you are talking about.