Craps Tips

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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 only about a century old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved south and discovered refuge in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he designed the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.