Craps

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Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French relocated south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.