Be a Master of Craps – Tips and Techniques: The History of Craps
Posted in Craps on 12/29/2018 08:25 am by Donovan
Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. A good many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.