Learn to Play Craps – Tricks and Schemes: The Background of Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French moved south and located sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he invented the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.