Craps Tips

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi river boats and all over the nation. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he developed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.