Master Craps – Tips and Plans: The Past of Craps
Be smart, play smart, and master craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard during a siege 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 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French headed south and found sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is gotten from the name of the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and across the country. Many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he invented the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.