Pickup Craps – Tips and Schemes: The Past of Craps

Be smart, play cunning, and become versed in craps the proper way!

Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Modern craps developed from the old English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French relocated down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the nation. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he established the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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