Craps Tricks

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps developed from the old Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. Most acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he designed the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.