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.

On the "Come Out" roll, the "Pass Line" bet wins if the shooter rolls a 7 or an 11. The bet loses automatically if the shooter rolls 2, 3 or 12. This is known as "rolling craps". If the shooter rolls 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 the shooter must roll this same number again (to win) before rolling the number 7. Rolling any of these numbers on the "Come Out" roll is called "establishing the "Point". Any number so rolled is thereafter referred to as the "Point".

The game of Craps revolves around dice. Wagers are made upon the result of a single roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Craps is a game of probabilities and odds, so any discussion of Craps will benefit by a brief explanation of the probabilities involved. Since the game uses two dice, a shooter (the person rolling the dice) can roll any number between 2 and 12. It is important to understand that some numbers are more likely to appear than others on a single roll of the dice.