Craps Information

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Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French headed south and found sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.