Learn to Play Craps – Hints and Techniques: The History of Craps
Posted in Craps on 03/07/2018 09:25 am by Donovan
Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French headed down south and located safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was gotten from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.