Master Craps – Tips and Techniques: The Past of Craps
Be brilliant, play brilliant, and become versed in craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi river boats and all over the country. A great many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.