Casino Games, Table Games

DIY Craps Night: How to Play Craps at Home

If you’ve ever found yourself yelling, “Come on, seven!” at your screen, it might be time to bring the craps experience home.

This guide will walk you through how to play craps at home, whether it’s your first time, a reunion with friends, or just a Thursday night when there are no more new episodes of Severance to watch.

Do you have a salad bowl? Good. Because you’ll need it for a dice boat.

Is it possible to play craps at home with friends?

Absolutely. It might even be the most fun you’ll have with friends standing around a table screaming at a rectangle.

Everything about craps screams “social game,” from the good-hearted shouting to the razzing of players using the dark side strategy, to the ritual of blowing on dice.

But, given the seemingly complicated arrangement, you’re likely wondering how to play craps at home with friends. After all, your living room isn’t exactly the Bellagio (…yet).

Thankfully, it’s super easy to play craps at home. With a few tweaks, some clever substitutions, and friends (a minor detail), craps game night at your place practically sets up itself.

A word of advice: choose friends who can yell things like, “HARD SIX ON THE HOP!” with a straight face. Not naming names, but you know who you are.

Quick Craps Overview

Now, before we dive into the home setup, let’s do a quick refresher on how to play craps at home for beginners, or anywhere, for that matter.

Craps is a dice game played in two phases: the come-out and the point round.

A player (the shooter) starts by rolling two six-sided dice. That very first roll of a new round is called the come-out roll.
On the come-out roll, landing a 7 or 11 means an instant win for anyone betting on the pass line. But if the shooter rolls a 2, 3, or 12, that’s an automatic loss for those same bettors (cue the hisses).
If the shooter rolls any other number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10), that number becomes the “point,” and the game moves into the next phase.
Once a point is set, the shooter keeps rolling. If they roll the same point number again before rolling a 7, pass line bettors win. But if a 7 shows up first, the round ends in a loss.

Bets can be placed on the pass line, don’t pass, and a ton of other options, like hardways, field bets, and proposition bets (aka the flashy, risky ones that make people yell louder). But that’s a story for another day.

Materials You’ll Need

A craps game layout is to the left of two dice and various betting chips laid out on a peach and orange burst-style background.

It seems like an at-home craps setup would be mega complicated with the fancy felt table and all that jazz. But it’s actually really easy.

To play craps at home, here’s what you need:

Two standard six-sided dice. Players always ask us how many dice they need to play craps at home. The answer is two. Next!
A flat playing surface. Use your dining table, your partner’s coffee table, or the kitchen floor. No judgement here.
Poker chips, coins, or Cheeze-its. Ideally, you’d use poker chips for a casino-esque vibe. But bottle caps, sticky notes, or anything that can represent bets without confusion should suffice, including the same stale popcorn kernels you used for Movie Night Bingo (we see you).
A printed or digital craps layout. You can DIY a simple layout with paper and markers or download one online. Don’t overcomplicate this one.
Score sheet or whiteboard. Only important if you’re playing with points or tournaments.
Friends! We cannot stress this enough.

To set it up, place your layout in the center of the table so that everyone can reach it. Assign one shooter to start, pass out your betting tokens of choice, and designate someone to manage payouts.

Craps Home Game Rules

The key to a fun night of crapping out (and occasionally winning) is to keep the rules so simple that your novice neighbor can show up to return your Tupperware and bust out a round or two.

If you’re all a bunch of long-time crap players, going hardways-level deep is fine (again, tell that one friend to keep his commentary contained). If not, start simple and build from there as the night heats up. Again, the rules are very bendable at home.

You can rotate dealers, add exotic bets, play tournaments, or anything possible within the craps universe. Go nuts as long as everyone’s on the same page.

How big of a bankroll do you need?

It depends on your crew’s appetite for risk, so you should talk to everyone first to establish betting rules. The following are practical tips.

Set Min And Max Bets For Your Guests

Before the game gets rolling, do everyone a solid and set a minimum (e.g., $1) and a maximum (e.g., $10) bet limit.

This keeps the game fair and fun while helping Jimmy (who tends to show off) stay reasonable. Ultimately, your craps bet limits should sit right around the “this is fun” zone without too much pressure.

Try Tournament Style

So your home is packed like the Venetian Casino on a Saturday, and you’ve just come to the shocking (yet exciting) realization that you have way more friends than expected. We knew you were popular. Don’t panic.

Transform your humble craps party into a tournament.

Offer a set buy-in (say $10). Everyone gets several chips (say $100 worth). Then, take turns rolling. You can award the payout to whoever holds the most chips. The winner can take all or bag 70% of the loot, and so on.

Important: Keep Your Game Legal (and Read Up On Local Laws)

The allure of winning indeed is what makes gambling worthwhile, even if it’s a friendly game of craps. But if you’re not careful, your craps home game can get really illegal, really fast.

To stay within the legal realm, the host or hostess shouldn’t expect to make a profit. It might sound frivolous, but taking a cut like a real casino can turn your home game into an illegal gambling operation.

If hefty returns are truly on your agenda, learn how to play craps at home for money online. At Cafe Casino, your craps sessions are private, you can play anytime, and you get rewarded with cash referral bonuses for inviting your friends.

Playing Without Money

Betting chips and a slice of pepperoni pizza are on either side of a window of neon lights. A man stands within the window, presenting the items, and it’s all set against a multi-toned peach background.

Who says you need money to be happy? Don’t answer that. But seriously, you can have the time of your life playing craps at home without dropping a dime.

Besides, tossing guests who don’t pay up in a dark room and threatening to break their fingers like Nicky Santoro in Casino isn’t an option. (If it is an option, please see the previous section.)

With that development, try these ideas for cashless craps:

Use chips with no cash value and play for bragging rights.
Create dares or tasks instead of payouts (e.g., loser brings drinks or takes a tequila shot, winner establishes a party rule for the remainder of the night, such as no first names allowed. IDK, it’s just a thought.)
Play for tokens redeemable for small prizes (an extra slice of pizza or skipping clean-up duty).

How To Prepare And Host A Craps Game Night

The difference between “having fun” and “game night that lights up the group chat for a decade” is preparation with a capital P.

You certainly don’t need to be a 5-star party planner; just check a few key boxes.

Here’s a cheat code: cocktails! Steal our refreshing cocktail recipes (crowd favorites) to ignite the mood, then pair them with jalapeño poppers or dice brownies for finger food between rounds. They’re not crappy at all – promise.

Game night done right means endless drinks and food, loud laughs, and dice flying. But when the guests go home and you’re still craving action, Cafe Casino is open 24/7. You can play craps for real, win cash prizes, and skip the clean-up entirely. Your living room has some tough competition with our craps online, although… we definitely wouldn’t mind trying those jalapeno poppers.