Randron Sports mark: a chalked letter A inside a square

Notes on odds, house percentages and the arithmetic behind the games.

Simplified craps table layout showing the pass line, come area, field, place numbers and proposition centre
One half of a craps layout. The two ends are mirror images; the centre is shared.

Reading a Craps Table Layout

A craps layout looks crowded because it is two identical betting areas printed at either end of the table with a shared area of proposition bets in the middle. Learning one end is learning the whole table.

The long band running around the outside is the pass line. Inside it sit the come area, the field with its own printed payouts, and the boxes for the place numbers, four, five, six, eight, nine and ten. Behind the pass line is an unmarked strip where the odds wager is placed, and it is unmarked precisely because it is the one wager on the table carrying no house percentage at all.

The centre of the table holds the single-roll propositions, printed in the largest type and carrying by a distance the largest house percentages on the layout. The inverse relationship between the size of the printing and the fairness of the price is not an accident of design.

Read from the outside in, the layout is a gradient. The quietest markings are the cheapest wagers.