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

Where the craps tables are in Missouri

Missouri allows casinos only on or next to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, so the map for craps in Missouri is a map of two waterways. The two big metro areas take most of the tables, one at each end of the state, and a handful of smaller towns along the rivers fill in between them.

Kansas City has Ameristar Casino Kansas City and Bally’s Kansas City inside city limits, Harrah’s in North Kansas City and Argosy Casino Riverside a few minutes up the river. All four sit along the Missouri River within a short drive of downtown, which makes a two-casino night easy to plan if one pit is full.

St. Louis and St. Charles

On the St. Louis side, Horseshoe St. Louis sits downtown near the Arch grounds and River City Casino sits south of downtown along the Mississippi. Hollywood Casino St. Louis in Maryland Heights and Ameristar St. Charles sit on opposite banks of the Missouri River, in the western suburbs near the airport.

The smaller river towns

St. Jo Frontier Casino in St. Joseph and Isle of Capri Boonville are the two stops along the Missouri River between the big cities. In the southeast, Century Casinos runs both Cape Girardeau and Caruthersville on the Mississippi. These rooms are quieter, and a single craps table may be the whole game.

The biggest casinos with craps in Missouri

The larger metro properties carry the most tables. Ameristar St. Charles, Hollywood Casino St. Louis, Horseshoe St. Louis and River City lead on the eastern side, while Ameristar Kansas City, Harrah’s and Argosy lead in the west. On a busy night those are the rooms where you are most likely to find a choice of minimums.

The operators are familiar national names. PENN Entertainment runs four of the 12: both Ameristars, Hollywood Casino St. Louis and Argosy Riverside. Caesars Entertainment runs Harrah’s Kansas City, Horseshoe St. Louis and Isle of Capri Boonville. Boyd Gaming owns River City, Bally’s has its Kansas City casino, and Century Casinos has two.

That matters for rewards more than for the game. If you already hold a players card with one of these companies, your craps play in Missouri may earn points you can use at a sister property in another state. Ask at the players club desk how table play is rated before you start, because every company counts it slightly differently.

Missouri craps: live dice at every casino

All 12 casinos in our Missouri directory list live craps with real dice. None lists an electronic-only table, and none lists crapless craps or a card version. For a player, that keeps things simple: the game follows standard rules, with a stickman calling the rolls and dealers paying the layout exactly as you would see in Nevada.

A pass line bet wins on 7 or 11 on the come-out roll and loses on 2, 3 or 12. Any other total becomes the point, which has to repeat before a seven. Missouri tables follow the usual casino payouts for place bets and hardways, while the field and the odds limits are set by each casino.

If you are new to live dice, a busy Missouri riverboat is a good place to learn by watching. Read our short guide to craps etiquette before you go: buy in between rolls, keep your hands clear when the dice are out, and put chips on the table rather than handing them to the dealer.

Table minimums and odds the casinos publish

None of the 12 Missouri casinos in our directory publishes its craps minimums or odds limits online. That is common for riverfront rooms, where limits move with the day of the week and the size of the crowd. Treat any figure you hear second-hand with caution, and get the current numbers from the casino itself.

The number to ask about first is the odds limit. The odds bet behind the line pays true odds and carries no house edge, so a table offering 3x-4x-5x or higher lets you put more of your action on the cheapest wager in the building. A table that caps odds low costs you more over an evening.

Minimums are the second question. A Kansas City or St. Louis property on a Saturday night may open its lowest table at a higher price than the same room charges on a Wednesday afternoon. If budget matters, call before you set off and ask what the lowest craps table will be when you arrive.

Is craps legal in Missouri?

Yes. Craps in Missouri is legal at the state’s licensed casinos, which the law still describes as excursion gambling boats. Missouri voters approved riverboat gaming in the 1990s, and the casinos must sit on or beside the Missouri or Mississippi rivers. The Missouri Gaming Commission licenses and regulates every casino in the state.

All Missouri casinos are commercial; there are no tribal casinos in the state. You must be 21 to gamble. One piece of history explains a lot of old advice you may read online: Missouri once capped how much a player could buy in per session, but voters removed that loss limit in 2008, so it no longer applies.

Online craps in Missouri

Online real-money craps is not licensed in Missouri. No app or website can legally take real-money craps bets from you while you are in the state, whatever an offshore site may claim in its ads. Those sites hold no US license, so no regulator checks their games or stands behind your deposit if something goes wrong.

Seven states license online casinos, led by New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and you must be physically inside one of those states to play. If you travel there, our page on online craps in West Virginia explains the options. In Missouri, the online choice is practice on our free craps table.

The free table follows standard casino rules, so it is a sensible warm-up before a trip to Kansas City or St. Louis. You can make pass line, come, place and proposition bets and watch how each one settles. Our guide on how to play craps walks through the same rules in plain order.

Tips for a craps trip in Missouri

Call ahead, always. Smaller rooms such as St. Jo Frontier or Caruthersville may run one craps table at set hours, and even the big metro casinos open and close tables through the week. The casino’s own website and phone line are the only reliable sources for hours and limits. The casinos directory lists each phone number.

Pair the cities with the state line in mind. Kansas City sits right on the Kansas border, and St. Louis faces Illinois across the Mississippi, so a longer trip can take in casinos in a neighboring state as well. Our other state guides cover those options, and they make it easy to compare what each side of the river offers.

Playing craps in Missouri responsibly

Choose a loss limit before you buy in, and stop when you hit it. Missouri no longer caps your buy-in, so the limit has to be yours. Once gambling stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER for free, confidential help, and read our page on responsible gambling for practical tools you can use before and during a trip.

Missouri also runs a voluntary exclusion program through the Missouri Gaming Commission, which applies to every licensed casino in the state. One practical detail before you go: Missouri casino chips stay with the property that issued them, so cash out at the cage before you cross the river to the next casino.