The game of craps is the most popular dice game in the United States at the moment there are a few different theories about its origin. Dice games can be traced back to the roman times with shaved pigs knuckles being used as the dice. Craps however was based on the game hazard, which was popular in the 17th and 18th century in England. The name craps is believed to have derived from the English crabs which was the name for the throw of aces or ace-deuce. The game moved over to the United States when the French moved to New Orleans and the French pronounced the game craps and in there version of the game the player throws against the house and not another player like the English version of the game. The game was very popular on the Mississippi river boats and it was a simplified version of modern day craps that was spread about the United States. There are two modern day versions of craps played today. Street craps has more in common with the riverboat game than Bank craps and it is so named as it can be played on the street. A shooter establishes a point, then tries to make that point. Bettors either bet with the shooter or against the shooter. Someone must cover the bet for the shooter in order for the game to progress. Bank craps is the form played in the casinos and has a more complicated form of betting with the house covering the bets.

In this system, you raise your bet one unit if you lose and lower it one unit if you win, which means your winning bets will be higher than your losing bets. It would look like this in practice: 1, lose and go to 2, lose and go to 3, win and drop to 2, lose and go to 3, lose again, bet 4, win, bet 3 ad infinitum. It looks attractive, but the end result is the same: you will eventually lose your money. A ten loss series would have you down 55 units and you would have a helluva time getting out of that hole.

The six and eight can each be made five ways. So if you are up on the don't six, you have six ways to win (on the number seven) and five ways to lose. When the bet is $10 you would win $60, lose $50, and be ahead by $10 after the 11 decisions (on average) If you see a don't player about to take his bet down just say to the fellow: "Don't! Here's 10 bucks, you're even!" He'll take the $10 because that's what his bet is.

To bet with the shooter, you must place your bet in an area marked ""Pass Line", before the new shooter rolls the dice. The so-called "Pass Line" is a strip on the table layout marked by two lines roughly two inches wide and it rims the entire table layout across from the Box Man. To bet against the shooter, you must place your bet in an area marked "Don’t Pass". This area is a strip on the table layout and it rims the table directly above the "Pass Line".No matter what stage the game is in, whether on the "Come Out" roll, or in progress, you can jump in immediately and place any bets. The only exception to this is the bet called the "Pass Line" bet with odds", which can be made only on the "Come Out" roll. You can, however, bet with the shooter even while the game is in progress by placing a "Pass Line" bet without odds. Placing your chips halfway over one of the two lines framing the "Pass Line" area does this.