The Don't Pass Bet

If you're in a land based casino and having a good time at the craps table, maybe making a few new friends, then you should probably avoid making the don't pass bet. Essentially it's like betting against the shooter, commonly referred to as betting 'against the dice'. This means that when pass line bettors and the shooter win, you lose, and more importantly when you win, they all lose. Not the best way to make friends. Playing online craps however annuls this restriction on the don't pass bet, as there is no real shooter or set of people playing with the dice to upset. At the casino though good vibes are as important as anything else at the craps table, so I don't recommend putting out any bad vibes by playing against the dice.

To make a don't pass bet move your chips to the narrow strip just above the pass line, labeled clearly with the words 'don't pass'. You can think of the don't pass bet as the opposite of the pass bet, when the pass bet would win, the don't pass bet loses, and vice versa. This means you lose on a 7 or 11 on the come-out roll, but win on a 2 or 3. A 12 on the come-out rule is a tie, just like a push in blackjack. If a point is set, the don't pass bettors win if a 7 is hit before the point (notice how a lot of other 'with the dice' people at the table will be quite unhappy when this happens, and even more unhappy when you collect money on their bad fortune).

It seems awfully nice of the casino to offer an opposite bet of the normal one, wouldn't you think the house edge would also flip and give you the advantage in this situation? Indeed, only if the casino kept its numbers straight. Unfortunately though, on a don't pass bet with odds, the casino pays out crappy amounts. The odds of a seven coming out before a ten are quite good, so the casino has to hedge its bet in a way, and alter its payouts.

See the Don't Pass Bet demonstrated here.

All bets:
Pass Line Bet | Pass line bet with odds | The field bet
The don't pass bet | The come bet | The don't come bet
The hard way bet | The place bet | Proposition bets | Big 6/big 8