Be a Master of Craps – Pointers and Techniques: The Past of Craps
Be smart, play brilliant, and pickup craps the proper 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 formed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard amid a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French moved down south and found sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.