Craps TipsBeginner Craps Tips

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Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French relocated south and located sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. Many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he designed the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.