Gaming Guru

Reducing the House Edge Using Odds

Frank,

The video in your new book Casino Craps: Shoot to Win! is very good. It is a little hard to see the full throwing motion, but all in all a great help for learning. Thanks for the information.

My wife also had a question even after reading the book. Is there a better of way I can help her understand the advantage taking full odds on both the pass line and the come bet? She is confused because you state in reality you lose a certain amount each time you win, against the house edge.

I have tried to explain it to her that you have to string together more wins in succession to overcome this loss and the edge. My simplified explanation may be wrong too. Any help you could offer to explain this to her would be great.

Thanks for your time and advice.

"Northwest Shooter"

Dear Northwest Shooter:

Using the odds bet will reduce the house edge in the following way. Let us say you wish to bet a $30 six. If you place the bet and win, the payoff is $35 and the house edge is 1.52 percent on the bet. Your expected loss over time is 46 cents per bet. This is therefore a good bet.

But a Pass Line or Come bet with odds is an even better bet. If you are playing at a 5X odds table and bet a $5 Pass Line bet and put $25 behind it in odds should your point be a six, the house will have a 1.41 percent edge - on the $5 - but no edge on the $25 in odds. So your expected loss on this bet is a mere 7 cents - a far superior bet to the Place bet of the six.

Because the casino does not take any money from your win on the odds, this makes Pass Line and Come betting superior to any other kind of betting.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank Scoblete