Pickup Craps – Hints and Schemes: The History of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and learn how to play craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French moved south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. A good many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he established the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
