When you're playing, do you stick to standard bets or do you use the Free Odds bet to increase your possible winnings? There are some casinos where if you were betting say $10, instead of betting the whole amount as a straight bet, you were better off betting $5 on the bet you were going to make and $5 on the Free Odds to match it to increase your winnings.
Free odds is misnamed. A contract bet must be put and established before so called free odds can be taken. A Pass or Come or Do bet cannot be called down. The free odds bet may be called down by the player at any time. In theory, free odds benefit neither the Player nor the Casino. It would appear that if one bet $5 for 1000 times, the expected loss would be about 1.38% of the amount bet or $5000 x .0138 or $69 loss. This is an estimate, in a short trial of 1000 events, the result can vary considerably. Taking free odds in any amount does not change the expected loss, but will sometimes cause the variable expected loss to be greater or lesser.
Taking free odds should almost never be taken unless you have identified precision throwers, and then betting Do and taking odds can be beneficial to the bettor. A bettor taking free odds (double, triple) has a strong benefit for the casino, the reason the casino promotes a seemingly break even bet.
A typical bettor may approach a craps table with a $300 bank roll. The boxman has $50,000 in chips in front of him and can call for a refill. Taking free double odds results in the bettor betting out of proportion to his betting bank.
It is possible to have six point bets with triple odds, all of which are lost to a single roll of 7. Bank roll to bank roll, the casino takes the bettors bank when the bettor takes odds. In the description of flat betting with an expected cost of $69, leaving the bettor with $231, the casino will have taken a $300 bank from the double or triple free odds player many times.
A bettor may have a period of winning, in which case he normally increases the size of his base bet. The casino loves this because increasing bet size after winnings enhances the casino chance of bankrupting the player. In cases where the casino offers up to 100x odds, it is possible to derive a free odds (complex) betting system that will win (for the player) most of the time, but there are far better betting systems possible.
A system favorite for craps bettors is to Place the sister. Place bets are considered paired. 6 and 8 are sisters. 5 and 9 are sisters. 4 and 10 are sisters. If a $5 Do bet is made and 6 is established as the point, there are five combinations to be rolled (for a win) and six combinations to be rolled that make a 7 (loss). Assume that a point 6 is established. Place $6 on 8. A point of 6 and a point of 8 have equal chances of winning. The net result of having a bet on both is that there are 10 combinations that will produce a win and 6 combinations that lose. If the 8 is rolled (paying $7 to $6), take down the winnings and the Place bet. You will have a $2 winnings if the point bet (6) loses. If the 6 is rolled, take down the the point and winnings and the Place bet. Do bets can be made with every roll. If the roll is a 7, the previous point(s) and sister(s) will be lost, but you will receive a $5 win for the come out rolls.
Sister betting requires no thinking, is exciting and comfortable because it stays within the betting ratio of a buy in bank. In event of a long roll that ends with a final roll of 7 (loss of points and sisters), many prior points or sisters will have been hit and taken down. The final roll of 7 (loss) may still result in a net win for the hand. Compare this to the horrendous loss that would result from having multiple points covered with multiple free odds bets.
Place the sister betting system demolishes the idea that double or triple free odds have any benefit to a bettor. Do yourself a favor and forget free odds bets exist. They do nothing for you and strongly favor the casino. Buy bets have a cost and have multiple true odds, but that is a different topic, but one that should be considered if you are in a $25 minimum game. There are craps betting systems superior to sister betting but describing them takes a book. There is an excellent eBook (for $9.99) depicting the accounting of betting systems. If you are interested, go to amazon.com/author/larryhaight to order it.