Be a Master of Craps – Tricks and Plans: The History of Craps
Be cunning, play cunning, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A few acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he created the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.