Craps Information

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers imported 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 eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the country. A good many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he invented the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.