Craps Strategies

Learn to Play Craps – Tips and Tactics: The History of Craps

by Aden on Sep.17, 2022, under Craps

Be cunning, play smart, and pickup craps the correct way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is acquired from the term for the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.


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