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

Where the craps tables are in Maryland

Maryland’s six craps casinos are spread across the state, but four of them sit within reach of the Baltimore and Washington corridor. That makes central Maryland one of the denser craps markets on the East Coast outside Atlantic City. The other two are destination trips: one on the Eastern Shore and one in the mountains.

Horseshoe Casino Baltimore sits downtown near the stadiums, and Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland is in Hanover, close to BWI airport. MGM National Harbor looks across the Potomac toward Virginia. Those three are the biggest rooms in the state and the ones most likely to have several craps tables open on a busy night.

Hollywood Casino Perryville sits off Interstate 95 near the Susquehanna River, handy for anyone driving between Baltimore and Philadelphia. Ocean Downs Casino in Berlin is a few miles from Ocean City, so its busiest months follow the beach season. Rocky Gap, near Cumberland, is the most remote of the six.

The biggest craps casinos in Maryland

Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, owned by The Cordish Companies, and MGM National Harbor, run by MGM Resorts International, are the two largest casinos in the state by revenue. Live! draws from Baltimore and Annapolis, while National Harbor pulls heavily from Washington and northern Virginia. Both run several craps tables at peak times.

Horseshoe Casino Baltimore is operated by Caesars Entertainment and sits close to the downtown stadiums. It is the easiest of the three to reach without a car. Rocky Gap Casino, Resort & Golf, run by Century Casinos, is the only Maryland casino in our data that publishes a named side bet: the Fire Bet.

The Fire Bet pays when a shooter makes several different point numbers before sevening out. The top payouts look huge, but most shooters never get close, and the house edge is far higher than anything on the line. Hollywood Casino Perryville, run by PENN Entertainment, and Ocean Downs, run by Churchill Downs Inc., round out the list with smaller floors.

What kind of craps Maryland casinos deal

All six casinos in our Maryland data run a live dice game with a stickman, a boxman and real dice. There is no card craps and no electronic-only room on the list. Our guide to how to play craps walks through the rules exactly as these tables deal them, from the first come-out roll onward.

That means the standard bets apply everywhere. A pass line bet pays even money and costs 1.41% of each dollar decided, and the odds bet behind it pays true odds with no house edge. Some casino floors also add electronic craps terminals near the table games; our overview of craps variants explains how they differ.

Maryland craps side bets

Rocky Gap’s Fire Bet is the only named side bet in our Maryland data. Others may run unpublished at the bigger casinos. The rule of thumb is the same for all of them: a big headline payout means a small chance of winning it, and a much higher cost per dollar than the line.

Table minimums and odds at Maryland craps tables

None of the six Maryland casinos in our data publishes a craps minimum or an odds limit. That is common for casinos this size, because limits move with the crowd. A table at the big central Maryland casinos can open low on a weekday afternoon and climb sharply by Saturday night, especially around concerts and home games.

The smaller casinos tend to be steadier. Perryville, Ocean Downs and Rocky Gap draw fewer players, so their limits usually move less, but they may also run fewer tables or close the pit on quiet nights. Whichever casino you pick, call the table games desk that day and ask about the minimum and the maximum odds behind the line.

Odds are the number to ask about first. A $15 table with 5x odds is cheaper over a session than a $10 table with 2x odds, because every extra dollar in odds is paid at the true price. Of all the choices you make at a table, the odds limit moves the real cost of craps in Maryland the most.

Is craps legal in Maryland?

Yes. Craps in Maryland is legal at the six licensed casinos on this page. Maryland voters approved slot machine casinos in 2008 and table games, including craps, in 2012. The casinos are regulated by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, which licenses operators and staff and approves the games they deal.

All six are commercial casinos, and the number of licenses is set in state law, which is why new casinos do not simply open wherever there is demand. Unlicensed websites fall outside that system entirely. For a real-money craps table with dealers, the six casinos are the only licensed options in Maryland.

Online craps and Maryland

Real-money online craps is not licensed in Maryland. Seven states license online casinos, led by New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. A Maryland resident can play online in one of those states only while physically inside its borders, and every licensed site checks your location before it deals a single roll.

Pennsylvania is the closest option for many Marylanders, since the state line is a short drive north of Baltimore. Our overview of online craps explains how licensing, geolocation and sign-up work in the four legal states. Any site that offers real-money craps to players inside Maryland is unlicensed, and no regulator will help if it refuses to pay.

If you want to practice at home, our free craps table plays by standard casino rules and uses no real money. It is a good way to learn where the bets go and how the odds bet works before you sit down at National Harbor or Horseshoe with real chips on the rail.

Planning a craps trip in Maryland

The Baltimore and Washington casinos are close enough to try two in one evening. Horseshoe, Live! and National Harbor all sit within about an hour of each other on a normal traffic day, which in this corridor is never guaranteed. Our casino directory and the list of craps by state have every address and phone number.

Before you go, check the casino’s own website and call the table games desk. Ask whether craps is open at the hour you plan to arrive, what the minimum will be and how much odds they allow. At Ocean Downs, summer weekends bring the biggest crowds; spring and autumn are quieter.

Rocky Gap makes a good weekend on its own. It sits in a state park near Cumberland, with a lake and a golf course, and the drive from Baltimore or Washington takes around two and a half hours. A smaller casino like this one can run fewer tables on weekdays, so calling ahead matters more there than anywhere else.

Playing responsibly in Maryland

Set a loss limit and a stopping time before you buy in. A busy craps table can roll around a hundred times an hour, and the center bets drain a rack quickly. Our responsible gambling page explains how to set limits, how self-exclusion works and which warning signs to look for in yourself or a friend.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER, which is free and confidential. Maryland also runs a Voluntary Exclusion Program through the Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, which bars enrolled players from all six casinos. At the table, one simple rule helps: when you reach your loss limit, color up whatever is left and walk away.