Master Craps – Hints and Schemes: The Background of Craps
Be cunning, play cunning, and master craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps evolved from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.