Pickup Craps – Hints and Schemes: The Background of Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the British, the French headed down south and discovered refuge in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he designed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.