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Be a Master of Craps – Pointers and Schemes: The History of Craps

Be clever, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French headed down south and discovered safety in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and across the nation. Most acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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