Be a Master of Craps – Hints and Schemes: The History of Craps
Be smart, play smart, and learn how to play craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.