Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.