Pickup Craps – Tricks and Tactics: The History of Craps

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Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is theorized that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. A good many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.