Learn to Play Craps – Hints and Plans: The Background of Craps
Be brilliant, play clever, and master craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the English, the French headed south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the nation. A few acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. Later, he designed the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.