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Learn to Play Craps – Tips and Techniques: The Background of Craps

Be smart, play brilliant, and learn how to play craps the proper way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps formed from the old English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the birth of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French relocated down south and discovered sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.