Craps Tips

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Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed down south and located refuge in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he created the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.