Master Craps – Pointers and Tactics: The Background of Craps
Be smart, play smart, and become versed in craps the right way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard amid a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the citadel’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved down south and discovered sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. A good many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.