Master Craps – Tips and Techniques: The History of Craps
Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps come about from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard during a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French relocated down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is acquired from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he designed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
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