Master Craps – Tricks and Techniques: The Background of Craps
Be clever, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps evolved from the old English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French relocated down south and found sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. Most acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he established the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.