Learn to Play Craps – Tricks and Strategies: The Background of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and become versed in craps the right 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. Current craps come about from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard through a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French relocated south and discovered refuge in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is gotten from the term for the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Later, he invented the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.