Learn to Play Craps – Tips and Tactics: The History of Craps
Be brilliant, play cunning, and learn how to play craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins wagered on Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French headed down south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and throughout the country. Many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.