Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed 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 extended to the Mississippi riverboats and across the nation. Many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.