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 Craps
is without a doubt the casino game where most people have the most fun. If you hear a hubbub in a casino,
it may be because a slot jackpot has been hit, but day in and day out the noisiest, most lively area of
a casino is the craps pit. Thrills, excitement, fun... as usual, where there is fun for the average person,
there is a parallel lack of skill.
Despite huckster gibberish, there is very minimal skill in how dice can be influenced as they are thrown.
As long as they have to hit the far wall, the laws of physics will win out over the laws of hucksterism.
"Dice control" preachers are no match for Isaac Newton.
There are however a large number of bets available at a craps table, and some are much worse than others.
Obviously it is pure skill to not bet the worst bets available. Betting the pass line with odds is the best
craps bet you can get, with a house edge under 1%. Basically you get the right to make an even money bet by
making a parallel negative expectation bet. Oh, joy. But compare that to betting "any seven": the
house edge is 16.67% (odds are 5 to 1, but the house pays 4 to 1) and now the pass line with odds looks
like a blue chip stock.
Craps is a gambler's game. There are a lot of ways to bet. You can even simultaneously make contradictory
"hedge" bets, apparently thinking that making two bad bets that are opposite is somehow a good
thing. In the end that is all the game is: a fun way to give a casino some monetary expectation.
How much gamble is there in craps?
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