Pickup Craps – Hints and Strategies: The Past of Craps
Be smart, play cunning, and master craps the ideal way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the old English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.