Craps Tips

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Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps come about from the old English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights played Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the nation. Most acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he designed the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.