Craps in Colorado: Casinos With Craps Tables and Where to Play

Where to find craps in Colorado

Colorado gaming lives in a handful of historic mining towns, and craps follows it. Black Hawk is the center, with six of the 11 casinos in our list, about an hour from Denver. Central City, a short drive up the hill from Black Hawk, adds the Grand Z Casino Hotel, so the two towns together hold seven craps rooms.

Cripple Creek, southwest of Colorado Springs, has three: Chamonix Casino Hotel, the Golden Nugget Cripple Creek and The Brass Ass Casino. It is a smaller, quieter town than Black Hawk, and a sensible choice for players from the south of the Front Range who would rather not drive into Denver traffic and up the canyon.

The eleventh sits far from the rest. Ute Mountain Casino Hotel in Towaoc, in the southwest corner of the state near Cortez and the Four Corners, is run by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. It is the only tribal casino in our Colorado list with a craps table, and the natural stop for players in that corner.

The biggest names for Colorado craps

The large Black Hawk resorts carry most of the action. Ameristar Casino Resort Spa, run by PENN Entertainment, is one of the biggest, and it is the one room in our Colorado list that flags a crapless game. Monarch Casino Resort Spa and the Horseshoe Black Hawk, run by Caesars Entertainment, are close by.

Saratoga Casino Black Hawk is the room that publishes the most. The casino publishes 20x odds, the highest multiple in our Colorado data, and its layout lists All Tall, All Small, Make ‘Em All and a Sharpshooter bet. Monarch publishes the same trio of All Tall, All Small and Make ‘Em All.

Bally’s Black Hawk and The Lodge Casino round out the town’s six. In Cripple Creek, Full House Resorts runs Chamonix and Landry’s runs the Golden Nugget, while The Brass Ass Casino, run by Triple Crown Casinos, publishes a $10 craps minimum. That is the only published Colorado minimum in our data, so treat it as a single point.

What kind of craps Colorado casinos deal

Every Colorado casino in our directory deals craps with real dice. There is no card craps here and no electronic-only room in the list. The game you meet is the standard one: a stickman, a boxman, dealers on each end and the same layout you would find downtown in Las Vegas.

Craps in Colorado is still fairly young. Voters approved dice and roulette in 2008, and the first legal craps tables in the gaming towns opened in the summer of 2009. For a beginner, a quiet weekday table in Cripple Creek is a friendlier place to learn than a packed Black Hawk pit on a Saturday night.

If you want to try something different, Ameristar’s crapless flag is worth knowing about. Crapless turns the 2, 3 and 12 into points rather than losers, but the 11 stops winning, and the house edge on the line climbs well above 1.41%. Our variants guide compares crapless, bubble and other versions of the game side by side.

Colorado craps table minimums and odds

Most Colorado casinos do not publish their craps limits online. The Brass Ass in Cripple Creek is the exception in our data with a $10 minimum, and Saratoga in Black Hawk is the only room publishing an odds multiple, at 20x. Everything else changes with the day of the week, the crowd and the hour you walk in.

Odds matter more than the minimum. At a 20x table, a pass line bet backed with full odds carries a combined house edge of about 0.10%, a fraction of the 1.41% on the flat bet. Even at a table with standard 3-4-5x odds, the combined edge falls to about 0.37%, which is why every sound approach starts there.

Colorado used to cap every bet, and older guides still repeat those limits. Those caps no longer apply in the three gaming towns after a 2020 statewide vote let local voters lift them, which Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek did. The practical result: a table maximum at a Colorado casino is now set by the house.

Is craps legal in Colorado?

Yes. Colorado voters approved limited gaming in the three mountain towns in 1990, and casinos opened there in 1991 with low bet limits and no dice. A 2008 amendment added craps and roulette and raised the limits, and a 2020 vote gave the towns power to remove bet limits entirely. Players must be 21 or older.

Commercial casinos are regulated by the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission, with the Division of Gaming in the Department of Revenue handling licensing and enforcement. Ute Mountain Casino in Towaoc operates under a compact between the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the state, so its gaming falls under tribal regulation rather than the commission.

For a player, the rules of craps in Colorado match the standard game. The pass line, the point, the odds and come bets work as described in our guide to how to play craps. What differs between casinos is the business side: which side bets appear on the felt, what odds multiple the house offers, and how many tables run.

Online craps and Colorado

Colorado licenses online sports betting, but real-money online casino games are not licensed in the state, and that includes online craps. A site offering real-money craps to someone in Denver, Colorado Springs or anywhere else in the state is not licensed by Colorado regulators, and we do not list or recommend any of them.

Seven states license online casinos, led by New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, for players physically located in those states. Before a trip up the canyon, our free craps table is a sensible place to practice: it follows standard casino rules and uses play money, so you can learn where the chips go.

Planning a craps trip in Colorado

Check the casino’s own website or call before you drive up. Mountain roads close or slow down in winter storms, and craps tables in the smaller rooms may open only in the evening or on weekends. Ask about the minimum at the time you plan to arrive, and ask whether the table offers more than the standard odds.

Pick a town by what you want. Black Hawk has the most tables and the largest resorts, Central City is next door, Cripple Creek is quieter and closer to Colorado Springs, and Towaoc serves the Four Corners. Our full casino directory and the state-by-state guide let you compare Colorado with nearby states.

Set a budget before you buy in and keep to it. Altitude and a late night are a poor mix for decision-making, and the house edge works on every roll regardless. If gambling has stopped being fun, our responsible gambling page lists support, and 1-800-GAMBLER is open day and night.

One thing to look at on the felt before your first bet: what the field pays on the 12. Most tables pay double, which leaves the field at a 5.56% house edge, and the payout is printed on the layout. The odds multiple usually is not, so ask the dealer before you buy in.