Learn to Play Craps – Pointers and Tactics: The Background of Craps

Be brilliant, play clever, and pickup craps the correct way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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