Master Craps – Tips and Techniques: The Past of Craps
Be cunning, play smart, and pickup craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and across the country. A good many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps layout. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.