Be a Master of Craps – Tips and Techniques: The Background of Craps

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

Be clever, play clever, and master craps the ideal way!

Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French relocated down south and located refuge in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is derived from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he invented the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.