Pickup Craps – Pointers and Tactics: The Past of Craps
Be cunning, play clever, and learn how to play 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. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French relocated south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.