Craps Information

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French moved down south and found refuge in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he invented the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.