Be a Master of Craps – Hints and Techniques: The History of Craps
Be cunning, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the British, the French relocated down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.