Master Craps – Tips and Tactics: The Past of Craps
Posted in Craps on 02/18/2025 12:25 am by Donovan
Be clever, play smart, and master craps the ideal 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. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is derived from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.