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 approximately 100 years old. Modern craps come about from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when banished by the British, the French moved south and found refuge in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.