A craps payout is the amount of profit a winning wager earns. That sounds simple until several payout systems appear on the same layout: even-money line bets, true-odds multiples, 7:6 place bets, commission-based buy and lay bets, one-roll propositions, and house-specific field or bonus schedules. The useful skill is not memorizing a wall of numbers. It is learning how to read the bet, unit, payoff and rule together.
Start with one distinction: returned stake is not profit
If you place $10 on a wager that pays 1:1 and it wins, the dealer returns your original $10 and adds $10 profit. Your total chips coming back are $20, but the payout is $10.
That distinction matters because beginners sometimes compare “money returned” with “payout odds” and conclude that a wager paid better than it really did. At a live table the crew normally announces or handles the profit according to the standard payoff, while your original stake remains yours unless the wager is taken down as part of settlement.
The clean way to read any payoff is:
Profit = Bet × Payout Ratio
Total returned after a win = Original stake + ProfitFor a $12 Place 6 at 7:6, profit is $14 and total returned value is $26 if the bet is taken down. If the Place bet stays working, the $12 commonly remains on the layout and only the $14 win is delivered.
Use the payout family before memorizing individual bets
Most common craps payoffs fit a handful of families.
| Wager family | Typical payoff logic | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Pass / Come | 1:1 flat bet | Point-cycle rules |
| Don’t Pass / Don’t Come | 1:1 flat bet | Bar-12 or other house rule |
| Odds | True odds | Point number and odds limit |
| Place | Fixed short payoff | Correct betting unit |
| Buy / Lay | True-odds style less commission | When vig is charged and how rounded |
| Hardways | Fixed proposition payoff | Hard total must arrive before easy total or 7 |
| Field | One-roll schedule | What 2 and 12 pay |
| Center props | One-roll fixed payoff | Exact displayed paytable |
This family approach is more reliable than remembering one giant chart, because the same bet name can have a different price when a casino changes the commission or bonus schedule.
For formal rule context, regulated craps rules such as the Massachusetts Craps and Mini-Craps rules define authorized wagers and payoff standards. For mathematical comparisons, the Wizard of Odds craps basics provides common U.S. payoffs and house-edge calculations.
True-odds payoffs come from the race against seven
After a Pass/Come point is established, the point races the 7. The decisive dice combinations are:
| Point | Ways to make point | Ways to roll 7 | Fair right-side payoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 or 10 | 3 | 6 | 2:1 |
| 5 or 9 | 4 | 6 | 3:2 |
| 6 or 8 | 5 | 6 | 6:5 |
These are called true odds because the profit exactly compensates for the probability disadvantage. A $20 odds bet on point 4 earns $40 if the 4 arrives first. A $20 odds bet on point 5 earns $30. A $25 odds bet on point 6 earns $30.
The odds portion therefore has zero built-in house advantage when paid exactly at true odds. That does not mean the whole Pass/Come structure is zero-edge: the flat contract wager that gives access to odds still has its own price. See Odds Bet House Edge for that distinction.
Place payouts are deliberately shorter than fair odds
Place bets look similar to odds bets because they wait for a number before 7, but their payoff is shorter than true odds.
| Place bet | Common payoff | Clean unit | Approx. edge per resolved decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 or 8 | 7:6 | Multiples of $6 | 1.52% |
| 5 or 9 | 7:5 | Multiples of $5 | 4.00% |
| 4 or 10 | 9:5 | Multiples of $5 | 6.67% |
A $12 Place 6 therefore earns $14. A $15 Place 5 earns $21. A $25 Place 4 earns $45.
The clean units are not casino superstition. They prevent awkward fractions. A 7:6 payoff on $10 is $11.666…, which forces a house procedure for breakage or rounding. Betting $12 makes the payout exact.
If you want the probability derivation rather than the settlement chart, use Place Bet House Edge.
Buy and lay payouts cannot be quoted without the commission rule
Buy bets and lay bets are where a one-line payout chart becomes dangerous. The underlying payoff may be based on true odds, but the casino charges a commission, commonly called the vig.
For a Buy 4, a $20 wager at true odds would earn $40 when 4 beats 7. If the casino charges 5% of the wager amount up front, another $1 cost is attached. If the casino collects only on winning bets, the effective price is lower because losing bets do not pay the commission.
Lay bets reverse the relationship: you risk more to win less because 7 is favored over the selected number. The casino may calculate the vig from the amount you can win rather than the amount laid. Rounding and minimum commission rules can matter at small stakes.
Never copy a Buy/Lay edge from a chart unless the commission timing and rounding assumptions match the table you are playing. Buy Bet House Edge and Lay Bets Explained handle those cases separately.
Proposition payouts look large because the events are rare
Center bets demonstrate why “highest payout” is a poor definition of “best bet.”
A common Hard 4 pays 7:1. The bet wins only on 2-2 and loses on the other ways to make 4 plus any 7. That common 7:1 schedule creates an edge of about 11.11% per resolved decision.
A common Any Seven pays 4:1 even though 7 appears on 6 of 36 combinations. Fair one-roll odds would require 5:1. The one-unit shortfall creates a 16.67% house edge.
Single-number propositions such as Aces often pay 30:1 even though 2 appears only 1 time in 36. Fair odds would be 35:1. The dramatic payout is still short relative to the probability.
The practical rule is simple: compare the posted payout with the event probability, not with the size of your original chip.
Field payouts are a small rule that can change the whole price
A Field bet wins on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12 and loses on 5, 6, 7 or 8. Ordinary winning totals pay even money, while 2 and/or 12 receive bonus payouts.
A common schedule pays one of the extreme totals at 3:1 and the other at 2:1, producing roughly a 2.78% edge. A stingier 2:1 on both 2 and 12 roughly doubles the edge to 5.56%. A more generous 3:1 on both changes the economics again.
So “the Field pays double on 2 and 12” is not a safe universal statement. Read the layout. The printed paytable is part of the wager.
Settlement order matters as much as arithmetic on a busy table
A payout can be mathematically correct and still be operationally wrong if it goes to the wrong player, uses the wrong chip stack, or is delivered before another wager is settled.
On a live table, the base dealers control many line, Come, Don’t Come, Place, Buy and Lay settlements. The stickman commonly controls center proposition action. The boxperson or floor supervisor monitors larger or disputed settlements depending on the casino’s staffing model.
Good procedure keeps four things visible: what wager existed before the roll, what the dice result was, what payoff rule applies, and which chips belong to which player. This is why late bets and hands entering the layout while payouts are moving create more than a courtesy problem—they damage the evidence trail.
For that operational side, see Dealer-Controlled Bets and Craps Surveillance Basics.
A five-bet payout drill is more useful than memorizing fifty lines
Suppose a player wants to test whether they understand the core table:
- $10 Pass Line wins — $10 profit at 1:1.
- $20 odds on point 4 wins — $40 profit at 2:1.
- $12 Place 6 wins — $14 profit at 7:6.
- $15 Place 5 wins — $21 profit at 7:5.
- $5 Hard 6 wins under a 9:1 schedule — $45 profit.
Those five examples force you to switch between even money, true odds, unit-sensitive Place payouts, and a fixed proposition payoff. If you can explain why each amount is correct, the rest of the table becomes easier to learn.
Read payouts as prices, not promises
The payout table tells you what a winning ticket earns. It does not tell you how often the wager wins, how long it can stay working, how much variance it creates, or whether another wager offers a better price for a similar event.
Use Craps Odds when you want the dice combinations behind the payoff. Use Craps House Edge when you want the casino price. Use Craps Odds Chart when you need a compact reference at the table. The craps odds calculator is useful when a posted payout differs from the schedule you remember.