Getting to the bottom of "house edge casino war" comes down to two dice. Craps is a dice game played at a casino table, and the rules look harder than they are. What decides every bet is how two dice land, so the whole game works from one small table of combinations. Knowing that table explains what each wager pays, why some bets carry a far bigger house edge than others, and how to play without slowing the game for the rest of the table.
Table etiquette keeps a busy game moving. Anyone who wants to shoot craps waits for the dice to come round, then throws them with one hand so both hit the far wall. Chips go down before the stickman calls for the roll, never while the dice are in the air, and winnings stay on the layout until the dealer pushes them across. Handing money straight to a dealer is avoided; it goes on the table in its place.
Craps is not a game of skill in the way a card game like poker is, because no strategy changes how the dice fall. The best strategy is simply choosing bets with a low house edge and skipping the rest. Over many rolls the game cannot be beaten and is not profitable for the player. It is fair in the sense that dice and payouts are fixed and public, and it is easy to learn one bet at a time.
Two dice give thirty six combinations, and they are not equally likely. Seven turns up in six of them, six and eight in five each, while two and twelve have one apiece. Every payout on the layout follows from those counts. The first roll of a round, the come out, pays the pass line on seven or eleven and loses it on two, three or twelve, which is why the pass line is where most players begin betting.
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