Craps

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Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about 100 years old. Modern craps come about from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard amid a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French relocated 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 adjusted the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.