Master Craps – Pointers and Strategies: The History of Craps
Be clever, play clever, and learn how to play craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about 100 years old. Modern craps come about from the old English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and located sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A few think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps layout. He added the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
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