Craps

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

Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps come about from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed south and found refuge in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and across the country. A good many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he established the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.