Craps

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Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.