12.10
Master Craps – Hints and Strategies: The History of Craps
Be cunning, play smart, and discover how to play craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is gotten from the term for the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A good many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Later, he created the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.