Craps TipsBeginner Craps Tips

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps come about from the old Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and located sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A few think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.