Craps Systems - Just Won't Hunt

By Silas Twist

Craps systems have been around as long as the game of craps has been played. Although new systems come out every other day, it seems, they all have a fatal flaw. No system can overcome the house edge consistently.

A craps system tries to overcome the house edge by using various betting strategies and money mmanagement techniques. This is not possible because the house edge is built into the probability of each possible dice roll. No matter what system is tried, the casinos edge will still be part of that system. For example, the real probability of rolling a 2, a one-roll bet, is 35 to 1. But the casino's odds are 30 to 1 giving the house a substantial edge.

There is no bet on the craps table that does not come with a house percentage. Even the free odds bet cannot be made without a pass or don't pass wager first. Sometimes in short-term play, some systems seem to work pretty well, but what will happen is, sooner or later, the house edge plus the "Law of Large Numbers" (LLN) combines to bust the system.


The LLN is what the casino depends on for their long-term profit. Applied to craps, it basically states that: the more times the dice are rolled, the closer the true probability for each number occurring will result. It's possible to roll the dice five times, getting the number two as a result, three times, even though probability states a two should occur only once out of every 36 rolls. But if the dice were rolled 10,000 times, the results would be much closer to the actual probability of occurring, which is once every 36 rolls.


Other proof that craps systems don't work can be found in the existence of so many casinos offering the game of craps. If a system did exist that could beat the game, the last place you would find a craps game would be a casino. Remember, all bets on a craps table are good; it is the payouts that are bad. Since all bets have a negative expectation, the best that a system can do is help limit losses.