Learn to Play Craps – Tricks and Techniques: The Past of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and discover how to play craps the ideal way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. Later, he developed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.