Become Versed in Craps – Tricks and Schemes: The Background of Craps
Be brilliant, play cunning, and discover how to play craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved down south and discovered sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. A good many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Later, he designed the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.