Lay Bet and Buy Bet in Craps

This is one of the more complicated and interesting bets in craps. First I will start off talking about the buy bet. Basically, players can make a bet on the established point numbers at any time. Players will win if the shooter rolls the point number before the seven. The payouts would be excellent because it would be paid by true odds. That means 4 and 10 pays out 2:1 odds, 5 and 9 pays out 3:2 odds and 6 and 8 pay out 6:5 odds. This is also the actual odds of winning the bet so the house edge is zero! To sum it up, it pays out exactly same way as the pass odds bet for each number. The catch is a player must pay a 5% commission to the house, which is known as "vig" or "juice". This small fee increased the house edge from 0% to 4.76%.

The lay bet works almost the same way, except it is the opposite. This time you wager on the point number and that the shooter will roll a seven before the point. Again, players are paid out the true odds with no house edge, along with the 5% vig commission. Although, because the seven gets thrown more often than any other number, your payouts are "less than even". Also, the house edge for 4 and 10 is 2.44%, the edge for 5 and 9 is 3.23% and the house edge for 6 and 8 is 4.00%.

This bet would be perfect if it wasn't for that commission. The lay and buy bet is almost like a shortcut to the free odds bet, but you have to pay a price rather than just doing it straight from the pass line bet, where you can get around the commissions and also get much better overall odds anyways.

Unfortunately, I could not get a screenshot of where to place this bet on the table because this casino does not support the bet. But if you click on the image below, you can still play the free flash game of craps on this table anyways and practice the game, which is beneficial anyways for new players.

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