Skip to content

Categories:

Become Versed in Craps – Hints and Plans: The Past of Craps

Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the correct way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s paladins wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the boxes for Place bets 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.