Become Versed in Craps – Hints and Schemes: The History of Craps


Be brilliant, play clever, and become versed in craps the correct way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard amid a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French relocated south and located refuge in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A great many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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