Getting to the bottom of "Is craps a game of skill?" 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 one bet at a time.
Two dice give thirty six combinations, and they are not equally likely. Seven turns up in six of them, six and eight in five each, while two and twelve have one apiece. Every payout on the layout follows from those counts. The first roll of a round, the come out, pays the pass line on seven or eleven and loses it on two, three or twelve, which is why the pass line is where most players start betting.
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.
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.
The pass and come bets carry an edge a little over one percent, while the proposition bets in the middle run far higher.
Two dice make seven in six of their thirty six combinations, more than any other total.
No. Strategy means choosing bets with a low edge and skipping the rest; the dice cannot be beaten.
A one roll bet split across two, three, eleven and twelve. It pays large multiples and keeps a high edge, like the other propositions.
Mostly luck: no way of throwing controls the dice, and every roll is independent. Skill only works against the house edge, by choosing bets like the pass line with odds and skipping the proposition bets.