Getting to the bottom of "craps ats meaning" comes down to two dice. Craps is a dice game played at a casino table, and the rules look harder than they are. What decides every bet is how two dice land, so the whole game works from one small table of combinations. Knowing that table explains what each wager pays, why some bets carry a far bigger house edge than others, and how to play without slowing the game for the rest of the table.
Craps is not a game of skill in the way a card game like poker is, because no strategy changes how the dice fall. The best strategy is simply choosing bets with a low house edge and skipping the rest. Over many rolls the game cannot be beaten and is not profitable for the player. It is fair in the sense that dice and payouts are fixed and public, and it is easy to learn a single bet at a time.
Craps also comes in other forms. A bubble craps machine shakes the dice under a clear dome and takes bets on a screen, with the same rules as the table. Crapless craps removes the losing totals from the first roll and pays for it with a higher edge. The all tall small bet, the meaning behind the letters ATS, is a side wager on rolling every small and every tall number before a seven. At home the game needs only two dice, and whether playing for money is illegal depends on local law, never on the dice.
Craps payouts vary more than in almost any other casino game, and so does the house edge. Pass and come bets pay even money with an edge a little over one percent, among the best odds on the casino floor. Odds placed behind the line pay at true chance and carry no edge at all. The horn bet, split across two, three, eleven and twelve, pays large multiples but keeps an edge above twelve percent.
An extra bet placed behind a pass or come bet once a point is set, paid at true odds with no house edge.
All, tall and small is a side wager on rolling every small or every tall number before a seven, with a large payout and a high edge.
The pass line wins on seven or eleven on the come out, loses on two, three or twelve, and otherwise needs the point before a seven; come works the same way later.
Two dice make seven in six of their thirty six combinations, more than any other total.
The pass and come bets carry an edge a little over one percent, while the proposition bets in the middle run far higher.
A one roll bet split across two, three, eleven and twelve. It pays large multiples and keeps a high edge, like the other propositions.