04.10
Master Craps – Tips and Techniques: The Background of Craps
Be smart, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French moved south and found sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was gotten from the term for the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the country. A great many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he invented the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.