Craps Information

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Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the birth of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the English, the French relocated south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. A good many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.