Blackjack hands are scored by their point total. The hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn't go over 21, which is called a bust. Cards 2 through 10 are worth their face value, and face cards (jack, queen, king) are also worth 10. An ace counts as 11 unless it would bust a hand, in which case it counts as 1.

The goal of each player is to beat the dealer, by having the higher, unbusted hand. Note that if the player busts, he loses, even if the dealer also busts. If the player's and the dealer's hands have the same point value, this is known as a "push", and neither player nor dealer wins the hand.

The rules vary slightly from one casino to another, but the expected value of most bets is only slightly negative (the most favorable bets with the most favorable rules offer a house advantage of as little as 0.18%). All bets have a negative expectation, except the "free odds" bet with an expectation of 0, that the player is allowed to make after a point is established on a flat (line) bet. Since there is no correlation between die rolls, there is no possible winning strategy over any given period of time. While experienced blackjack players who learn to count cards can gain a small mathematical advantage over extended playing sessions by diligent study, there is no comparable strategy for craps.

One roll bets that the shooter will make an 11 (pays 15-1, actual odds 17-1); Bets that a shooter will make a hardway number such as 4-4 (before throwing a 7 or an 8 the easy way such as 6-2 or 5-3) (pays 9-1, actual odds 10-1). Indeed you can bet on any combination of the dice on the next roll, this is called a hop bet, example hard 8 on the hop pays 31-1 (actual odds 35-1).

Craps is a bet that the shooter will roll 2, 3 or 12 on the next roll. The true odds are 8-1 and the casino pays 7-1.

C & E is actually two bets. A player is betting one unit on craps and another unit on 11. One of the two bets will always lose, and the other will pay off as above.