Master Craps – Tricks and Tactics: The Past 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 modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the English, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Most acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he established the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.