Why most craps players lose

The odds are against them.

Players seem to forget that casino games have a built-in advantage for the house. That is, losing is the expected result. The casinos didn't build their huge resorts because they got lucky, they built them from the profit that's engineered into every game they deal. As the Wizard of Odds says in his Ten Commandments of Gambling, "Thou shalt expect to lose."

They're not trying to win.

For some people, the fun isn't the chance of winning, it's the experience of playing. Craps can be an exciting game, with everyone shouting and cheering each roll of the dice. Many players just want in on that experience, and buy in for $20, $40, $100, $500 or even more with no real anticipation of winning. These are the players who think nothing of making a continued pattern on the Proposition Bets for the sheer excitement should one of them hit. Most of these players can afford to lose, see no need to learn the real percentages on the table, and couldn't care less about the table odds offered in the casino they're playing in. These players usually constitute the majority of the house winnings at the end of each shift.

They're superstitious.

Superstition the root of all evil at the craps table. To completely list the wide realm of superstitions that are manifested at the craps table we'd need several pages. Superstitious players play without any consideration of simple mathematics and are destined to failure over the long haul.

They're not capitalized to weather short-term losses.

Many players would have wound up showing a profit if they hadn't gone bust first, from being undercapitalized. The vast majority of players do not have a plan, have very little discipline, are short on patience, and are just plain unrealistic. For any player to think that they can buy in to a craps game with anywhere from $20 to $500 and leave the table with thousands and thousands is just not facing reality. If you are serious about winning at the craps table you need to answer the following questions, before they start playing:

How much is in my bank?
How much will I be satisfied to win?
How long do I intend to play?
When should I quit?

If your ratio of bank to anticipated win is not realistic you can not be serious.

They make bad bets.

The craps layout has some very good bets and some very bad bets. It's a simple matter to stick to the good bets (Pass, Come, Don't Pass, Don't Come, backed with an Odds bet), but most players don't. Instead of sticking to those they insist on also playing these losers:

The Proposition Bets in the middle of the table.
Place Bets on the outside numbers (5,9,4, and/or 10).
The Hardways

They fail to make the Free Odds bet.

The Free Odds bet has no house advantage and can increase your chances of walking away a winner if you play it properly. But most players fail to take the maximum odds offered by he casino. See our article on the Free Odds bet for more.