Pickup Craps – Tricks and Tactics: The History of Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the English, the French relocated down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn developed the modern craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he established the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.