Learn to Play Craps – Hints and Techniques: The History of Craps
Be clever, play clever, and master craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps formed from the old English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French relocated down south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
No comments yet.