Pickup Craps – Tricks and Techniques: The Background of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and discover how to play craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is theorized that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when banished by the British, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. A good many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.