Master Craps – Tricks and Tactics: The History of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard amid a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French relocated down south and located refuge in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was gotten from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.