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Learn to Play Craps – Hints and Techniques: The History of Craps

Be brilliant, play cunning, and become versed in craps the proper way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French relocated south and discovered sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and all over the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

Posted in Craps.


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