Be a Master of Craps – Tips and Plans: The Background of Craps
Be cunning, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps developed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and across the nation. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. Later, he established the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.