Play Craps online at Luxury Casino

Most casino games have them - those built in bets that give the house a major edge. Sure they promise great returns if you win and that's the allure of considering them at all. But the objective phrase is " IF you win", and in the case of these sucker bets, the odds are most definitely stacked against you.

The craps table is one casino game where these wagers definitely stand out, especially if you know what you're doing. When you're well informed, use a sound betting strategy and take advantage of free odds bets, you can lower the house edge to around 1% or slightly less.

If however, you're new to the game you may find yourself tempted to play some of the more risky bets featured in the centre of the craps table. Our immediate advice here is don't - most of these options which include Big6, Big 8, Place and Buy bets and a few other prop bets in the middle of the table are sucker bets and are definitely not going to do your bankroll any favours over the long term. Even in the short term they are longshots at bets.

Let's take a look at some of the worst craps bets so that you can avoid them when playing online craps at your favourite online or mobile casino.

Big 6 and Big 8 bets

Big 6 and 8 bets may seem like an attractive betting option thanks to the fact that they are close to the passline. When playing these wagers you are betting that a 6 or 8 will be rolled by the shooter before a 7, it may seem like a simple and attractive bet but it's really not. Here's why... these wagers only pay even money when you win BUT give the casino a 9.1% edge. That means that for every €100 you bet, you'll lose €9.10 whereas on betting the passline with proper craps strategy you stand a chance of losing less than €1 with each bet.

When you look at it this way you can see why these should be avoided at all costs.

Any 7's Bet

The Any 7's bet affords you a win in the event that a 7 is rolled and because 7 is the most frequently rolled total it seems like an attractive bet to many. There are however just 6 ways to win and 30 ways to lose when playing this option. At correct odds the bet should pay 5:1 but most casinos only offer 4:1 giving the house a 16% advantage over anyone playing this bet in craps.

Place Bets

A Place Bet requires you to wager on one or more numbers (4 through 10) and many players are tempted to cover all the point in the event that the shooter goes on a streak and doesn't crap out for long periods of 100 rolls or more.

Too often you'll find that the shooter craps out on the first point and all of these wagers are lost so this is really a sucker play.

This is because the casino's advantage on place bets varies between the different numbers with the house edge of 4% on numbers 5 and 9, and 6.67% on 4 and 10. The payouts for place bets are as follows:

• 4 and 10 pay out at 9:5
• 5 and 9 pay 7:5
• 6 and 8 pay 7:6

These are poor odds for less than amazing returns.

Craps Bet

This is the bet that gave the game its name, so it's often a popular one. The premise of this wager is that if a 2, 3 or 12 are rolled the bet wins. Sounds good? It isn't. It means that there are just four ways to win this bet and 32 ways to lose. Also casinos generally pay out at 7:1 instead of 8:1 as it should be which gives them a whopping 11% edge.

Horn Bets

This is a slightly more complex craps bet in which an identical chip is placed on 2, 3, 11 and 12. Only one number can win but more often all four numbers lose. What most players don't realise is that individually these four numbers have the worst house advantages and together they afford the casino a combined edge of 11% as the Craps Bet.

Field Bet

Of all the Craps sucker bets the Field bet is the most popular - it wins when the shooter rolls a 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12 and loses if 5, 6, 7 or 8 are rolled. Still with 7 numbers making it possible to win and just four resulting in a loss, players tend to think it offers good odds.

This couldn't be further from the truth. There are 16 ways to win and 20 ways to lose and statistically the losing numbers are rolled more often! At fair odds this should pay out at 5:4 but most casinos only offer even money, giving them a 5% advantage.

As you can see there are a number of bets that will lead to major losses if you choose to play them. So it you want to make as much of a return as possible when playing the best craps bets by sticking to betting the come and passline or don't pass bets , you'll be glad you did.