Become Versed in Craps – Pointers and Plans: The History of Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.