Question of the Day - 11 December 2020

Bet $15 on the pass line and $10 on the don’t pass. You’ll effectively have a $5 net pass bet. The only problem is a come out 12. Sure you can make a $1 bet on 12 but s it really worth it to do all that extra stuff?

While most casinos will allow it, particularly when they’re not busy, it’s discouraged. And it may actually hurt your rating. 

Make a passline bet with a second bet called an "odds bet" behind the passline, that play strategy is the lowest risk method you can use, it gets your risk down quite low. But it can get to be boring play, so if you need additional action on the game you can place bets on the 6 and 8. Betting the "don't pass" has about the same low risk but it's not as much fun since you are betting against the shooter and against most of the other players at the table. A big part of the fun at craps is the joint celebration when the shooter makes his point, so if you bet against the shooter you won't be part of that. The randomness of craps can make any betting strategy seem like you've got a winning system - for a while. But it's always a negative expectation game, designed for players to lose most of the time. There will be winners just often enough to encourage more play.
 

The odds on the don't are better than the odds on the pass line. When you play the don't you are not "betting against the shooter". I only play the don't and at no time am I "betting against the shooter". All of my bets are against the house.

2 players , opposite on table , one bets $25, come --one bets dont $25,each gets a $1 midnight bet on comeout . one loses his $25 and token , other wins $25 +$25, therefore $50-$25 ==+$25 (-$2 midnight bets )if 12 comes on comeout , have a drink .

The answer didn't address this, but Dave has the theoretical answer. Outside of the comeout 12, if the pass line wins, you win $5, if don't wins, you lose $5. I think that's what the questioner was asking. And if you usually take odds, you can play $5 odds on your $15 bet (or $10 if you want actual double odds). I don't think you have to play the full original bet when you take odds.

rokgpsman--Is correct in that the pass line bet has the lowest house edge.  A $10 bet on the pass line has a house edge of 1.4% or $.14.  However you can lower that house edge considerably by taking odds.  Let's say the casino has a max of 5 times odds on the pass line.  If you choose to make the $50 bet in odds, you have a total bet of $60.  Since the $50 in odds is an even bet with no house edge, the house edge in dollars is still $.14. Spreading the $.14 over the entire $60 the house edge is lowered to well under 1/2 of 1% on the $60 bet.  You can do the same on come bets since they are the same as a pass line bet, the come bet simply comes later in your roll.  Even if you take one times odds ($10) you are getting the house edge down to about 1%.  So use pass line / come bets with odds to keep the house edge to as low as possible.  Hope that helps.  

If you want more action, the best approach is to add Come bets to your original Pass bet, since the Come bets have the same odds.  I like to have 3 numbers working, but sometime if neither the 6 nor 8 is covered, I might place them just since they hit more often.  However, sticking to Pass and Come (with all the Odds you can afford) is the best craps strategy.

The odds bet has zero house advantage, but it is a separate bet that can only be placed after the player already has a line bet and then a point has been established.  It is a fallacy to combine the line bet with the odds bet and claim that the house advantage has been lowered as a result of the combination of these two bets. The house advantage on a line bet is 1.4%.  One hundred $10 line bets, about three hours of play on a busy table, results in a average long term loss of 1.4% x 100 x $10 which equals $14.  (Thus, for the casual player who only plays line bets, a strategy that can be learned in less than 10 minutes, the average cost of playing craps is $14 for three hours, or less than $5 per hour.) Placing an odds bet every time a point is established results in an average loss of zero dollars, no matter how high the bet is, since the house advantage on this bet is zero.  Therefore after the same three hours of play, with or without odds, the average long term loss is still $14.

In addition, there are two disadvantages of placing an odds bet.  First, for a casual player with a limited bankroll, as a result of the extra money required for the odds bet, a losing streak will deplete the bankroll before a reasonable amount of  playing time has occurred.  Second, the house normally comps based on the amount of the line bet only, since they do not profit from the odds bet.  Therefore, rather than placing an odds bet of several times the line bet, a player taking advantage of comps would usually be better off increasing the line bet and sacrificing the expected 1.4% loss on the additional amount, instead of placing odds. 

1. Adding an odds bet to a pass line bet does not lower your risk of loss. Yes it lowers the overall percentage of house edge, but the total amount wagered has now increased, so when you multiply the lower house edge by the higher amount bet, the expected amount of loss is the same.
2. When adding an odds bet to your pass line bet, you do not place the odds bet behind the pass line bet. Rather, you place it IN FRONT OF the pass line bet, closer to you, in the "tarmac" area, ideally just touching the outermost white border line. It you put the odds bet behind the pass line bet, it will be sitting partly or entirely in another bet's zone on the table.
3. The house edge on the Pass Line is 1.41%.  The house edge on Don't Pass is 1.40%.  So the Pass Line bet is not better mathematically.  But the difference is insignificant.
4. Betting Don't Pass may likely result in your getting mild to severe flak from other players, which can make for a bad experience. You won't enjoy playing.

I have never played craps. After reading these informed, informative, apparently well-reasoned and mathematically sound comments, I see no reason to start.

Yep, Bud said what I was gonna say. Sounds way to confusing to even think about learning. Must be a young persons game. My ole brain would have a hard time keeping up.  

Actually, the reason I wrote that I saw no reason to start playing craps was that even after one masters all those daunting permutations of betting options, they will still lose about 1.4% of their money over any reasonable period of time. 

That makes leaving your money in a non-interest bearing account or in your mattress, for that matter, a better bet. Apparently, what the APs call "variability" makes the game fun, even if costly, but I'm too much of a bean counter or someone who always sees the big picture to get pleasure from a temporary run of good luck when I know that an equivalent run of bad luck plus 1% is just around the corner as sure as the sun will rise in the morning.