Which has the best odds, Black Jack or Craps?  Please do not take the
gambler's experience or skill into account.  I am only interested in
the probability mathematics...which game offers the best odds?

Please do not reference the web site www.allcraps.com in your answer. 
Please be specific about what the best odds are in each game and how
they can be achieved.

Thanks.

Dear kingdaddy,

As commenters below have posted, the www.wizardofodds.com web site is
very useful for your question.  The site features lots of odds and
strategy information for numerous casino games.

The site features a page with exactly the information you're looking
for called "The House Edge."  This page, located at
http://www.wizardofodds.com/gambling/houseadv.html, was last updated
January 29, 2002, and has an entire chart with various casino games
including Craps and Blackjack and how much of an edge the house has.

As you can see, for every type of Craps wager, the house edge is
better than for both generic types of Blackjack (Atlantic City and
Vegas rules).  To answer your question plainly, Blackjack is the
better edge for the player.

However, this chart does assume perfect play by the Blackjack player,
which means he would follow basic strategy.  This is essentially a
chart which the player must follow when deciding whether to hit, stay,
split, or double down.  The chart gives the player's hand and the
dealer's up card and provides the proper move.  This chart and other
blackjack odds information can be found at
http://www.wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/.  Although certain odds
were listed in the above page for two generic games, you can find
exact house edges using the calculator at
http://www.wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/house-edge-calculator.html.
 The blackjack page also shows how certain rule variations effect the
odds.

The craps page from this site at
http://www.wizardofodds.com/games/craps/ also has lots of odds info on
craps, namely information on different types of bets and which types
of bets are best to place.

Overall, it is clear that blackjack played with perfect basic strategy
is a much better bet than craps.  However, the house advantage chart
shows that some craps bets really aren't very bad, though some are
awful  such as the proposition 2,12 bet.  The perfect strategy may
look daunting at first, but most of it is common sense and with some
studying, the rest can be learned in not too long of a time.

You may be interested in purchasing the Blackjack Bluebook II book (or
a different book) if you're interested in further blackjack techniques
such as card counting, which can even boost your edge to beating the
house.

So if you're purely interested in obtaining the best edge over the
house, stick to blackjack, but if you do play craps, review the craps
page above and the house edge chart to see which bets are best and
which you should definitely stay away from.

If you need any further info or if this answer isn't completely
satisfying, let me know and I'll try to help.

-chis

http://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/

This site has a link that allows you to input the rules for black-jack
and it will tell you the average rate the you will lose money
(assuming you play the odds statistically every hand without counting
cards) for the given rule set.

Rules at different locations give you varying results, so be sure to
know what rules you're playing.

According to the experts, counting cards (and using that information
wisely) can put you into a slightly positive amount of cash over the
very long term... however in the short term, luck can easily swing
your money positive or negative.

I don't know the odds or even how to play craps, so maybe someone else
will have a nifty link and insight for that.

In case you don't want to manually enter the data...

Under average house rules, you lose approximately $0.50 per $100.00
bet if you play statistically perfect and do not count cards in
blackjack.

The odds for the two games are extremely close; which one is better
will depend on what house rules are used for each game.

For blackjack, the best odds are achieved by following a basic
strategy table.  The house edge is aproximately .54%, but can vary
depending on what rules are used.

Strictly speaking, betting the "Don't Pass" line is the best strategy.
 However, the advantage is extremely minimal over playing the Pass
line (less than a .05% difference in house edge).  If you play the
Don't Pass, though, you're basically betting against everybody else at
the table, and will be happy when they are mad, and unhappy whenever
they are happy.  Therefore, it's a lot more fun to play the pass and
sacrafice the miniscule advantage.  The house advantage on these bets
is 1.41% for pass, and 1.36% for don't pass.

However, the thing which makes craps good, is after betting the Pass
or Don't Pass, a person can then make a bet of up to 3x the line bet
(depending on the casino) at even odds.  When this bet is taken as
well, it lowers the house advantage to about the same as blackjack.

There is not a place written on the table for buying the odds on the
Pass Line.  Rather, after a point is set, you place the bet on the
table behind the Pass bar.  Come bets and the odds on them have the
same expected value as the Pass bar - the decission to play them is
just based on how fast you want your swings to be.  All other bets on
the table should be stayed away from.  They're just ways for the
casino to quickly take your money.
(Care must be taken to bet an amount on the odds that you will get the
full return (since the casinos will round down).  I don't know what
those amounts are, but you can easily look it up, or just ask the
dealer at a casino)

http://www.wizardofodds.com/ also has an excellent section on Craps
and is overall a very well made site