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Be a Master of Craps – Pointers and Techniques: The Background of Craps

Be brilliant, play smart, and master craps the right way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Modern craps developed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French headed south and located sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is derived from the name of the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the nation. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.