Be a Master of Craps – Pointers and Tactics: The History of Craps


Be clever, play smart, and become versed in craps the right way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the old Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard during a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French relocated down south and located safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he invented the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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