Master Craps – Pointers and Techniques: The History of Craps
Be cunning, play smart, and master craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was gotten from the term for the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.