Master Craps – Hints and Plans: The Past of Craps
Be clever, play clever, and master craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard amid a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French relocated down south and discovered refuge in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and all over the nation. A few 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 players can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he invented the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.