Become Versed in Craps – Hints and Strategies: The History of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the ideal way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.