Be a Master of Craps – Hints and Strategies: The Past of Craps

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Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the origin of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he established the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.