Become Versed in Craps – Pointers and Plans: The Background of Craps
Be brilliant, play smart, and learn how to play 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. Modern craps come about from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard amid a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French relocated down south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is gotten from the name of the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.