Skip to content

Categories:

Learn to Play Craps – Pointers and Plans: The Background of Craps

[ English ]

Be brilliant, play clever, and become versed in craps the right way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and across the country. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. Later, he established the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

Posted in Craps.


0 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

You must be logged in to post a comment.