Pickup Craps – Hints and Strategies: The Background of Craps

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Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps come about from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French relocated down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is gotten from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the nation. A great many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.