Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Current craps come about from the old English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and throughout the country. A few think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Later, he created the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.