Atlassino Academy · Craps · Lesson 7 of 12
Place bets and their payouts
The dealer pays a place bet by the unit, at a different figure on each number. Here is how the payout is counted, and why the numbers that pay more cost more.
You hand the dealer $12 and ask for the 6. The next roll is a 6. How much does the dealer pay you?
The short answer
$14. The 6 is paid 7 to 6, and the dealer counts a place bet on the 6 in units of $6: the bet holds 2 units, and each unit is paid $7. Every place number is paid this way, at a figure of its own, and the numbers with the bigger figures cost a bigger share of every bet made on them.
The whole units in the bet, times what one unit is paid, makes the payout.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
A dealer paying place bets never divides anything. Every bet on a number is a stack of whole units, and every unit on that number is paid the same amount, so the dealer counts units and pays the same amount for each one.
Learn the three units and what one of each is paid, and you can check every place payout at the table before the next roll.
The six numbers and what each one pays
A place bet is a bet that one number — the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 — comes before a 7. Each of the six numbers has a box of its own across the layout, and each pair of numbers is paid at a figure of its own.
The 6 and the 8 roll the most often of the six numbers and are paid the smallest figure; the 4 and the 10 roll the least often and are paid the biggest.
A place bet is not a bet you put down yourself. You hand the chips to the dealer and name the number, and the dealer sets the bet up in the box for that number, in the spot that matches where you stand at the table, and gives back any change.
At tables in British Columbia, each pair of numbers also has its own unit.
| Numbers | Paid | A bet goes down in units of | One unit is paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 6 and the 8 | 7 to 6 | $6 | $7 |
| The 5 and the 9 | 7 to 5 | $5 | $7 |
| The 4 and the 10 | 9 to 5 | $5 | $9 |
How the dealer counts a payout
The dealer counts the bet in whole units and pays each unit at the figure for its number. On the 6 and the 8 a place bet goes down in multiples of $6; on the 4, 5, 9 and 10, in multiples of $5.
| Example bet | On the | Whole units | One unit is paid | The payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $12 | 6 | 2 | $7 | $14 |
| $30 | 8 | 5 | $7 | $35 |
| $10 | 5 | 2 | $7 | $14 |
| $25 | 9 | 5 | $7 | $35 |
| $10 | 4 | 2 | $9 | $18 |
| $20 | 10 | 4 | $9 | $36 |
Every amount in the table is an example, not a suggested bet. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.
A bet that is not a whole number of units
A bet on the 6 or the 8 that is not a whole number of units is still taken, and the part of the bet that is not a whole unit is paid even money.
How the bet splits is our reading of that rule: the part of the bet that makes whole units is paid by the table, and only the part left over is paid even money. Here is a bet of $15 on the 6, split that way.
A bet of fifteen dollars on the 6 splits into the whole units, paid by the table, and the part left over, paid even money.
The rule also allows paying the whole $15 even money, $15; the practice counts both answers.
On the 4, 5, 9 and 10, hand the dealer whole units of $5.
Off on the come-out roll
A place bet works only once a point is marked. On the come-out roll, the roll that opens each round, every place bet on the layout is off: a 7 does not take a place bet, and a place bet's own number does not pay it. A player can ask for the bet to be turned on.
- A 7every place bet stays up; nothing is taken
- The number a place bet sits onnothing is paid, and that number becomes the point
- A 7the dealer takes every place bet
- The number a place bet sits onthe dealer pays that bet at the figure for its number
Three prices for one kind of bet
Every place number is paid a little less than the true odds against that number coming before a 7, and the gap between the two is the price of the bet. On the 6 and the 8 the gap is smallest, and on the 4 and the 10 the gap is largest.
The question asked most often at the 6: place the 6, or make a come bet and take odds behind it? A come bet costs 1.41% of the bet each time the bet is settled, the same as the pass line. Odds behind a come bet are paid at the true odds and add nothing to that price.
With the largest odds the table allows, the come bet and the odds together come out at 0.374% of everything put down. That share looks like a quarter of the place bet's 1.52%, but the share is taken over a much bigger total, and in dollars the two bets are close.
- $12 on place 6about $0.18 on average each time the bet is settledabout $18.18 over a hundred settlements
- A $10 come bet, with the largest odds the table allows behind itabout $0.14 on average each time the bet is settledabout $14.14 over a hundred settlements
The come bet is cheaper by a few cents; the place bet is easier to make, one word to the dealer, while a come bet goes wherever the dice send it (lesson 5.5).
There is one more way onto a number. A buy bet sits on the same number and is paid at the true odds, 2 to 1 on the 4 and the 10, and a commission of 5% of the bet is taken when the bet goes down and again each time the bet is paid. A lay bet is the other way round, a bet that the 7 comes before the number, and its commission is taken on the amount the lay bet would be paid; a lay bet works on every roll. The dealer sets up both, as with a place bet.
An example: $20 bought on the 4 is paid $40, and the commission on that buy bet is $1. $40 laid against the 4 is paid $20, and the commission on that lay bet is $1.
| Numbers | Place | Buy | Lay |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 4 and the 10 | 6.67% | 4.76% | 2.44% |
| The 5 and the 9 | 4.00% | 4.76% | 3.23% |
| The 6 and the 8 | 1.52% | 4.76% | 4.00% |
On the 4 and the 10, buying costs less than placing; on the 6 and the 8, placing costs less than buying. The craps leaflet another province prints for its casinos says what the commission is charged on, the bet for a buy and the projected payout for a lay, but not when the commission is taken. The buy and lay prices in this table are for tables in British Columbia, where the commission is taken when the bet goes down.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Every number you place is one more bet in play at once: count the chips in the boxes against the money you set aside for the evening.
Decide before the first roll how much the evening gets and how long it lasts, and stop when either one runs out. Placing more numbers to get back what a 7 just took only buys more of the same price. If the money on the table starts to feel like money you need, the lines below are there for exactly that.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
Practice: pay the place bet
Here you stand where the dealer stands. The place bets are already in their boxes, the dice have landed, and the job is to say what the roll pays out. Level 1 is bets made in whole units, with a 7 after a point and the come-out roll mixed in. Level 2 is a bet on the 6 or the 8 that is not a whole number of units.
Nothing is bet here, and nothing is random. Each roll is a set picture of bets and dice, and the answer is worked out from the same payout figures as the rest of this page.
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Level 1 · Whole units
Point marked on the 9
You are the dealer. What do you pay out on this roll? Count the payout only, not the bet itself.
- $14.40 That pays the 6 at the true odds, 6 to 5. True odds are what the odds bet behind a line bet is paid; a place bet on the 6 is paid 7 to 6.
- $18 That is the payout for the $10 on the 4. The dice show 6, and the bet the roll settles is the one on the 6.
- $14 The dice show 6, so the bet the roll pays is the $12 on the 6: 2 units of $6, each unit paid $7 at 7 to 6.
- $26 That counts the bet itself into the payout. The $12 on the 6 belonged to the player before the roll, and the payout is only what the dealer adds to the bet.
One roll settles at most one place bet by paying it: the bet in the box whose number the dice show. The payout is the whole units in that bet, times what one unit on that number is paid. Once a point is marked, a 7 takes every place bet; on the come-out roll every place bet is off.
Level 1 · The come-out roll
Come-out roll: no point is marked
You are the dealer. What do you pay out on this roll? Count the payout only, not the bet itself.
- Nothing is paid: the dealer takes every place bet Only a 7 takes a place bet, and only once a point is marked. The 6 takes nothing.
- Nothing is paid, and every place bet stays where it is No point is marked, so this is a come-out roll, and on the come-out roll every place bet is off. The 6 pays none of the place bets, and the place bets work again once a point is marked.
- $14 That pays the bet on the 6 as if the bet were working. On the come-out roll a place bet is off, so the 6 is not paid on this roll; the 6 becomes the point instead.
One roll settles at most one place bet by paying it: the bet in the box whose number the dice show. The payout is the whole units in that bet, times what one unit on that number is paid. Once a point is marked, a 7 takes every place bet; on the come-out roll every place bet is off.
Level 2 · A bet that is not whole units
Point marked on the 5
You are the dealer. The bet on the 6 is $15, which is not a whole number of $6 units. What do you pay?
- $17 2 units of $6 make $12, paid $14 at 7 to 6; the $3 left over is paid even money. Together the payout is $17.
- $15 That is the other reading the rule allows: the whole bet paid even money, because the bet is not a whole number of units. The practice counts that answer; this page pays the whole units by the table and only the leftover even money.
- $17.50 That pays the whole bet at 7 to 6, as if the bet were a whole number of units. The part that is not a whole unit is paid even money.
- $14 That pays the whole units and leaves the part left over unpaid. The table pays the leftover even money; the leftover is not kept.
On the 6 and the 8, the part of the bet that makes whole units of the unit for that number is paid by the table, and the part left over is paid even money. That split is our reading of the rule for an incorrect unit. The other reading the rule allows pays the whole bet even money, and this practice counts that answer too.
Every roll in the practice run is worked out the same way: the bet in the box whose number the dice show is paid by its whole units at the figure for that number, a 7 after a point takes every place bet, and on the come-out roll the place bets are off.
How the practice run works
Where the rolls come from. Every bet in the practice run is settled by the same dice engine as the rest of the craps track: whether the roll pays a place bet, takes the place bets or leaves them alone, and how much the payout is, are worked out when the page is built rather than written down anywhere by hand. A place bet on the come-out roll is off, as the rule for these tables says. The wrong answers are worked out from the same bets, and each wrong answer is one named mistake: the number paid at the true odds, the figure of a neighbouring pair, the payout of a bet the roll does not touch, the bet counted into the payout, the whole bet paid by the table on an amount that is not whole units, or the part left over left unpaid.
Two answers on level 2. The payout that splits the bet into whole units and a part left over is the reading this page works by; the payout that pays the whole bet even money is the other reading the rule allows. Both are counted.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one roll of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to; when the squares of one level are full, the next level begins by itself, with no button in between. Practising a roll you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
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Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. The $12 on the 6 is 2 units of $6, each unit is paid $7, and the dealer pays $14.
Where to check this, and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Rules of Play for Table Games — Craps · BCLCThe full B.C. rules: the line, odds and lay limits, place and buy, the centre of the table and the Fire Bet, with every pay table.
- Craps — leaflet · Loto-QuébecThe most popular bets and the whole payout chart on two pages, with the odds and lay limits.
- Craps · GameSense by AGLCHow the game runs in Alberta, the Full Double odds and the terms you hear at the table.
How it’s worked out
Rules, numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every table on this page is a craps table standing in a room you can walk into. An electronic craps table or a screen at home is asked for different things, and what changes there belongs to other lessons.
Rules. The payouts, the units, the commission on buy and lay bets and the rule that a place bet is off on the come-out roll are the rules published by BCLC for casinos in British Columbia. They are a set of rules for the province’s tables, not a statement about any one room. The payout figures for place bets match every other Canadian document we could read; the units, the rule for an incorrect unit and the moment the commission is taken are printed only in the rules for British Columbia.
Numbers. Every payout is worked out from the payout table of those rules: the bet is split into whole units, and each unit is paid at the figure for its number. Every price is the average share of the bet lost each time the bet is settled, counted from the ways two dice fall. The price of a come bet with odds uses the largest odds those rules allow on each point. The price of a buy bet and of a lay bet takes the commission once each time the bet is settled, when the bet goes down; the rules do not say how a commission is rounded, so the amounts here are exact. Nothing is typed in by hand, and our checks recompute each figure from the engine rather than reading it back from this page.
Our reading. The rule for a bet on the 6 or the 8 that is not a whole number of units says the incorrect unit is paid even money. This page reads that as the whole units paid by the table and the part left over paid even money; the rule also allows paying the whole bet even money, and the practice counts both. For the 4, 5, 9 and 10 the rules print only the unit, so this page does not say how an amount that is not a multiple is paid.
What is deliberately absent. There is no pace of play and no price of an hour on this page, and no table minimum: no room page we could read prints a minimum for a live craps table. The layout of the table and the crew are lesson 5.1, the come-out roll and the point are lesson 5.2, the pass line is lesson 5.3, odds and why they cost nothing are lesson 5.4, come bets and how a come bet travels to its number are lesson 5.5, don’t pass, don’t come and laying odds are lesson 5.6, the field and Big 6 and Big 8 are lesson 5.8, the centre bets and the Fire Bet are lesson 5.9, shooting the dice is lesson 5.10, the price of a whole evening is lesson 5.11, and long hands are lesson 5.12.
Sources. Every payout and every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.
Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. Craps is played against the house. Knowing what each place number pays lets you check every payment at the table; nothing on this page makes any place bet free of cost, and nothing here says how an evening at the table would end.
What a place bet is paid
PLACE BET WAGER
6 or 8 7 to 6
5 or 9 7 to 5
4 or 10 9 to 5
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
Units for place bets
Place bets placed for the 6 and 8 must be in multiples of 6, and any incorrect unit will be paid even money.
Place bets for the 4, 5, 9 and 10 must be in multiples of 5.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
What a place bet is paid
PLACE BET WAGER
6 or 8 7 to 6
5 or 9 7 to 5
4 or 10 9 to 5
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
What odds bets are paid
These bets are some of the best in craps because they pay out at true odds, which means there is no house edge.
Odds Bets allow the Player to be paid at the true odds of that number being rolled. These wagers can be made only after a point has been made.
2 to 1 on 4 or 10, 3 to 2 on 5 or 9, 6 to 5 on 6 or 8
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
The price of each place number
6.67% on 4 or 10, 4% on 5 or 9, 1.52% on 6 or 8
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
A place bet on the come-out roll
A Place bet is automatically Off for the Come Out roll.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
These bets are turned off during the come-out roll, unless you request it to be turned on.
The price of a come bet
Pass Line/Come Bet Actual or “True” Odds: 251 to 244 Odds Paid or Payout: 1 to 1 House Edge: 1.41%
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
What a place bet is
Such wagers win if the number you have chosen is rolled before a total of 7 is rolled.
right bet 4 and 10 9 to 5 5 and 9 7 to 5 6 and 8 7 to 6
Roll a 4-10 and it pays 9 to 5; roll 5-9 and it pays 7-to-5; roll 6-8 and it pays 7-to-6.
GameSense by AGLC · Craps · read
9 to 5 on 4 or 10, 7 to 5 on 5 or 9, 7 to 6 on 6 or 8
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
What a place bet is paid
PLACE BET WAGER
6 or 8 7 to 6
5 or 9 7 to 5
4 or 10 9 to 5
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
Who sets up a place bet
All place bets are placed by the Dealer in a position relative to the Player's position on the table.
The Dealer must setup the wager and return any change to the customer if required.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
Dealers and the numbered boxes
Dealers will place these wagers for you by placing your chips in the numbered squares at the top of the betting area.
Units for place bets
Place bets placed for the 6 and 8 must be in multiples of 6, and any incorrect unit will be paid even money.
Place bets for the 4, 5, 9 and 10 must be in multiples of 5.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
An incorrect unit on the 6 or 8
Place bets placed for the 6 and 8 must be in multiples of 6, and any incorrect unit will be paid even money.
Place bets for the 4, 5, 9 and 10 must be in multiples of 5.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
A place bet on the come-out roll
A Place bet is automatically Off for the Come Out roll.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
These bets are turned off during the come-out roll, unless you request it to be turned on.
The price of each place number
6.67% on 4 or 10, 4% on 5 or 9, 1.52% on 6 or 8
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
The price of a come bet
Pass Line/Come Bet Actual or “True” Odds: 251 to 244 Odds Paid or Payout: 1 to 1 House Edge: 1.41%
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
What odds bets are paid
These bets are some of the best in craps because they pay out at true odds, which means there is no house edge.
Odds Bets allow the Player to be paid at the true odds of that number being rolled. These wagers can be made only after a point has been made.
2 to 1 on 4 or 10, 3 to 2 on 5 or 9, 6 to 5 on 6 or 8
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
Buy bets and their commission
All buy bets will be charged a 5% vigorish (commission) on the wager, at the time the wager is placed and every time the wager is paid.
The Dealer will return the 5% vigorish to the Player with the original wager when a wager is taken down.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
Lay bets and their commission
All Lay bets will be charged a 5% vigorish (commission) on the amount won, at the time the wager is placed and every time the wager is paid.
The Dealer will return the 5% vigorish to the Player with the original wager when a wager is taken down.
A Lay bet is working at all times
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
Who sets up buy and lay bets
All Buy bets are placed by the Dealer in a position relative to the Players position on the table.
All Lay bets are placed by the Dealer in a position relative to the Player's position on the table.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
Buy and lay in the leaflet for another province
commission (on bet) 4 and 10 2 to 1 5 and 9 3 to 2 6 and 8 6 to 5
5 % commission (on projected win) 4 and 10 1 to 2 5 and 9 2 to 3 6 and 8 5 to 6
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