Pickup Craps – Hints and Techniques: The Past of Craps
Be smart, play cunning, and become versed in craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the English, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. A great many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the modern craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
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