Street Craps vs Bank Craps: The Differences You Need To Know

Street Craps vs Bank Craps: The Differences You Need To Know

With most casino games comes the opportunity to bet against other players and in some, there’s even the opportunity to play your way to the jackpot if you have the right skills. Craps, however, takes this and shakes it all up, giving us a simple but nail-biting game. Working with your fellow players against the casino, the money making opportunity depends mostly on chance and while some betting strategies might fit, it’s often a case of using the right odds if you truly want to make a profit. However, there are two main types of craps – Bank and Street – but what is the difference? We’re exploring this below.

What Is Craps?

Simply put, craps is a game of chance. Players band together (at least as far as Bank/Casino craps is concerned!) to place bets on a certain outcome of a roll of two dice in the hopes of winning money from the casino rather than each other. In order to place bets within a casino, players must place their wagers on the layout featured on the craps table, which can often be easier said than done if they don’t understand what each section means! With the sheer number of bets that you can place, it’s no wonder that the table is a busy one.  Some versions of the game were so easily manipulated that different options were developed and now bets that you can place include Pass Line, Don’t Pass Line, Come, Don’t Come, Field, Proposition, One Roll, Big Red and quite a lot more.

Bank/Casino Craps

Bank craps, also known as Casino craps, is the usual style of play that you will find. In fact, it is the only style of play that you will find within a casino and is therefore the most important that you’ll need to know if you plan on visiting a casino or playing online.

The bets within the game are the most important thing, and considering many of the bets are the same in both Casino and Street craps, understanding each and every one is important. Some of the popular ones are as follows:

• Pass Line – Pass Line bets are one of the most common and fundamental of any Craps game. This is placed before the shooter – the person rolling the dive – rolls the come-out roll. Is a 7 or 11 is rolled, the Pass Line bet wins and the game ends. If a 2, 3 or 12 is rolled, the bet loses and the game ends, but if a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 is rolled, then a point is established and the game continues.

• Don’t Pass Line – This is the opposite bet to a Pass Line bet. 7 or 11 means that the bet loses and the game ends. 2 or 3 mean that the bet wins and the game ends. A 12 in this case, however, is a push bet in which the game ends and the bet is returned to the player. The remaining numbers establish a point as above.

• Come – This is the same as a Pass Line bet, but can only be made after a point number is established. 7 or 11 means a win, 2, 3 or 12 mean a loss, and if a point number is rolled, the bet moved there.

• Don’t Come – This is the opposite to a Come bet, but has the opposite win rules, and a 12 will once again mean a push bet, in which the bet is returned to the player.

• Roll Bets – Roll bets are placed for the next roll of the dice. You can either win or lose in these cases, and the odds will differ depending on the number you are betting on and potentially the casino that you are playing at.

All casino craps games are played on a table, and all games will consist of players working together whether played at a land-based casino, or you’re playing an online version of the classic Craps game. If you find that you are playing against other players and you aren’t in a casino, you could be playing Street Craps.

making the game more akin to Craps as we know it today, and also eliminating the fixed dice problem.

Street Craps

Sometimes called Shooting Dice or Ghetto Craps, this style of play is similar to the Casino game play, but with a few distinct differences. In the 1990’s and even as early as medieval times, craps and associated versions were often played on the streets though the variation may very well have been different. Today, street craps is a version often played in less-than-legal conditions, however there are circumstances where this isn’t the case. In general, however, players could face fines when playing street craps. The gameplay style is different in the sense that players bet against each other, and without the presence of a banker – a person who handles the money and ensures that players receive their winnings.

The first, and perhaps the most obvious difference between Casino and Street craps, is that the street version of the game isn’t played on a table. There is no table, and therefore no layout in which to place your bets, and so the two most commonly played bets are Pass and Don’t Pass. For this reason, it’s a popular game amongst those who may not otherwise know how to play, or who want a better chance at making a profit for themselves.

While street craps is the general illegal version of the famous game, it’s useful to know what the game consists of so you can spot the differences should you come across a game. Online and land-based casinos will have a Casino Craps style of play, so if you want to try your hand at the game, it’s important to learn the basics of how the game works in order to make the most of your play.