Craps Information

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French relocated 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 is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is derived from the name of the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and throughout the country. Many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the modern craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.