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Master Craps – Tricks and Plans: The History of Craps

Be cunning, play smart, and discover how to play craps the right way!

Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps evolved from the old English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French moved down south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and all over the nation. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

Posted in Craps.


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