Pickup Craps – Tricks and Plans: The History of Craps
Posted in Craps on 07/26/2026 01:25 am by Donovan
Be cunning, play cunning, and master craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. A good many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps layout. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.