Is craps legal in your state? How to read the table
Each row in the table gives you four facts. The first column says what kind of land-based craps a state allows, the second says whether real-money online craps is licensed there, and the third counts the casinos with a craps game that we have listed in our casino directory. The last column is a short note on the law.
The land column uses four labels. Dice means at least one casino deals the classic game with real dice. Card or alternative means the tables replace dice with cards or another device. Electronic only means the game exists as a machine or a video terminal. None means we have not confirmed a single legal craps game anywhere in the state.
What the directory count means
The count is not a census of every table in America. It is the number of casinos where we have seen craps listed on the venue’s own website, with the date we checked it. A zero means no confirmed entry yet. It does not always mean a state bans the game, so read the note before you plan a trip.
Commercial casinos and tribal casinos follow different rules
Two separate legal systems decide whether you can shoot dice. Commercial casinos, the kind you find on the Las Vegas Strip or in Atlantic City, exist because a state legislature passed a gaming law and set up a regulator. Tribal casinos exist on Indian land under federal law, and a state can shape what they offer only through negotiation.
That federal law is the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, usually shortened to IGRA. It sorts gambling into three classes. Class I covers traditional tribal games, Class II covers bingo and similar games, and Class III covers everything a Nevada casino does, including craps. A tribe may offer Class III games only under a compact signed with its state.
Why compacts matter so much for craps
A compact is a contract between a tribe and a state, approved by the federal government, that lists which games are allowed. If craps is not on that list, the tribe cannot deal it with dice, even beside slots and blackjack. Many of the odd answers in the table come straight from the wording of a compact.
California craps: why the game is played with cards
So is craps legal in California? Yes, but not in the form most visitors expect. California craps is the name for the versions dealt at the state’s tribal casinos, and most of them use cards or a card-and-dice hybrid. The reason is legal wording, and it goes back to a ballot measure from the year 2000.
Proposition 1A amended the California constitution to let tribes offer slot machines, lottery games and banking or percentage card games. Dice games were left off that list, and state law has long treated banking games played with dice as illegal. That gap explains why craps in California grew up as a card game rather than a dice game.
How California craps works
The layout looks familiar: pass line, come, field and place bets all sit where you expect them. What changes is how the total is produced. In the simplest format the dealer draws two cards from a shoe holding cards valued one to six, and their sum stands in for a roll. Our card craps guide walks through each format.
Other rooms run hybrid rules that tie each result to a card draw, even when dice are thrown. The pass line and odds payouts match Las Vegas, but the house may charge a small ante or commission on each decision. Read the printed rules at the table before you buy in, because formats differ from one casino to the next.
What casinos have craps in California
Our directory lists 21 California casinos with some form of the game: 13 card tables, five recorded as dice and three electronic. Names you will see include Cache Creek, Thunder Valley, Pechanga and Barona. A 2022 ballot measure, Proposition 26, would have added dice games and roulette at tribal casinos. Voters rejected it, so the card rules still stand.
Florida, Arizona and the other compact states
Is craps legal in Florida? It is now, with dice. The Seminole Tribe’s 2021 compact with the state added craps and roulette, and the Seminole Hard Rock casinos in Hollywood and Tampa began dealing dice games after that deal survived its court challenges. The racetrack casinos around Miami and Fort Lauderdale are a different story.
Those South Florida venues operate under state pari-mutuel law, not a tribal compact, and our directory records their craps games as electronic. So the answer to whether you can play craps in Florida depends on the door you walk through. At a Seminole property you throw dice; at a racino you usually tap a screen.
Arizona craps
Arizona followed a similar path. Updated tribal compacts signed in 2021 allowed craps and roulette, and dice tables opened at tribal casinos around Phoenix and Tucson. Our directory lists 14 Arizona casinos with dice, including Casino Arizona in Scottsdale, so craps in Arizona casinos now looks much like a game in Laughlin.
States where only a machine will do
In a few states the only confirmed version is electronic. Minnesota is the clearest example in our data: the one entry is an electronic table at Mystic Lake near Prior Lake. Electronic craps and the domed bubble craps machines often fit rules written for slots, which is how they reach states without dice tables.
Where real-money online craps is legal
Online, the list is short. Seven states license online casinos. The four big markets are New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and each runs its own regulator: the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Michigan Gaming Control Board, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the West Virginia Lottery Commission. You must be 21 and physically inside the state.
Location is checked every time you log in. Licensed sites use geolocation software, and if your phone sits on the wrong side of the Delaware River the game will not load. Both computer-dealt games and live-dealer tables such as Evolution Live Craps are offered. Our online craps guide compares what each state’s licensed casinos run.
What about everywhere else?
In the other 46 states and the District of Columbia you will not find a licensed real-money craps site. Offshore sites that accept American players are not licensed by any US regulator, and your money has no protection there. Free craps with play money stays legal everywhere, which makes them the sensible way to practice before a trip.
States with no legal craps at all
Two states sit at the far end of the scale. Utah’s constitution bans every kind of gambling, including lotteries, and Hawaii has no casinos, no state lottery and no licensed betting of any kind. Neither state allows a craps game in any form, which is why many Utah residents drive to Wendover or Mesquite across the Nevada line.
Other zeros in the table are softer. Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina have no casinos, so there is simply nowhere to play. Idaho and Alabama have tribal casinos, but their confirmed games are machines. Texas has one tribal venue, the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino near Eagle Pass, and we have not confirmed a craps table there.
Why a zero is not always a ban
For states like New Hampshire, Montana and Wyoming the note reads that no craps table is confirmed in our directory. That wording is deliberate. Charitable game rooms and small tribal casinos change their floors, and a game can appear without much notice. When a venue lists craps on its own website, it goes into the directory.
Before you travel: checking a state’s craps game
The table tells you whether craps is legal, but the casino decides the details. Minimum bets, odds limits and whether the game runs on a Tuesday afternoon all vary by property. Before a long drive, open the venue’s table-games page or call the pit, and check the listing in our Las Vegas casino guide if you are heading west.
Card craps deserves one extra check. Because each total comes from a draw, ask how often the shoe is reshuffled. A continuous shuffler keeps every draw independent, like a roll. A hand-dealt shoe that runs deep changes the odds slightly as cards leave it. Is craps legal there? Yes. Is it the same game? Ask the dealer.