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Sic bo is a dice game played with three dice, shaken in a covered container and revealed at once. Players bet on the result before the reveal: whether the total will be small (4 to 10) or big (11 to 17), whether a given number will appear, whether a specific total, pair or triple will come up. The game originated in China and is a fixture in Macau and on many live dealer tables.
2 stories · latest 23 October 2026
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Every sic bo system is really a choice of bets. Small and big carry a 2.78% edge, single numbers 7.87%, and no betting progression changes either figure.
6 min read
Read the storyA total of 4 pays 50, 60 or 62 to 1 depending on the house. How posted paytables set the sic bo house edge, from Macau to the Mirage.
Three dice produce 216 equally likely outcomes. Every sic bo bet can be priced by counting how many of those 216 outcomes win it and comparing that with what the house pays. Small and big, for example, lose on any triple, which is where their house edge comes from. Bets on a single total or a specific triple win rarely and pay large odds, but the gap between true odds and the payout is usually wider.
Unlike most table games, sic bo paytables are not standard. One casino may pay 50 to 1 on a total of 4 while another pays 60 to 1 or more, and the house edge of that bet changes with every unit. The paytable on the layout is the only figure that counts, so reading it before betting is the single most useful habit at a sic bo table. Our story on sic bo in Las Vegas works out the edge of every bet under the paytables casinos post.
A sic bo strategy is really a choice of bets. Each bet has a fixed house edge and its own swing, and no progression or pattern of raising and lowering stakes changes either. Our sic bo strategy story ranks the bets by edge and variance so you can choose with the numbers in front of you.
Each story takes one question, answers it up front, and shows the count of dice outcomes and the paytable it relies on, quoted from the casino or regulator that publishes it.
Read the Las Vegas paytable story first to learn the bets and how they pay, then the strategy story to compare them.
