Be a Master of Craps – Hints and Techniques: The History of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps developed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. Many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
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