Become Versed in Craps – Tricks and Techniques: The History of Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps developed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s knights played Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French relocated down south and found sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and all over the nation. A great many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.