Pickup Craps – Hints and Plans: The History of Craps

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

Be clever, play cunning, and become versed in craps the proper way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s horsemen wagered on Hazard amid a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French headed south and discovered refuge in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Later, he established the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.