History of Craps

Craps is an extremely popular dice game which is believed to originate from an old English game called Hazard and a branch off of the French game, Crabes. Craps involves players wagering money against the casino and the payouts are dependent on the outcome of the total on the dice. There are three forms of craps played around the world: street craps which is the informal version, usually played in alleyways or by random groups of people; casino craps which is the hit in land casinos; and online craps which is the latest version of the game born in the late 1990s.

The earliest origins of craps are believed to be rooted in the Crusade period, stemming from a game called Hazard. When Sir William of Tyre and his knights laid siege on a castle called Hazarth in 1125 AD, they invented the game to keep themselves occupied. The game’s name is a spin-off from the name of the castle.

The English continued their tradition of playing Hazard and the game became popular in the Middle Ages. The luxury gambling houses which were common in England during the late 1600s and early 1700s became the home to Hazard and enthusiastic royalty and noblemen passed their abundant spare time playing the game. Visiting French nobility discovered the game in the early 1700s and they renamed the game to crabs for the name of the lowest value of a throw of the dice.

In the mid-1700s, the popularity of craps had moved to the French colony of Acadia where its trans-Atlantic journey had begun. In 1755, the French lost control of the colony to the English and the craps-playing residents were sent wandering the area, landing up in Louisiana. Thus, the beginning of craps on American soil. There are some sources that say that craps also came to America with the first English settlers on the Mayflower, but in whichever form, craps was well-received.

John H. Winn has been named by many as the father of modern day craps because in 1907 he revolutionized the game. Winn made changes that facilitated craps players being able to bet right or wrong, improved the design of the board and established an area on the board called “Don’t Pass Bets”. The layout changes that Winn introduced are still used today and it is his version that is still played in land casinos.

When gambling was legalized in Nevada in the 1930s, craps was an instant hit because it was an exciting variation of gambling compared to the normal card games being offered in Las Vegas. Soldiers who travelled the world during the Second World War also played craps to pass their time and thus craps spread to all four corners of the globe.

The online gambling industry was born in the late 1990s and craps was immediately included in online casinos’ game line-up. While the vibe which surrounds a craps table is not possible to duplicate in the online version of the game, the rest of the game is just as one would find in a land casino. Players who are not familiar with the game are able to find a wealth of information about craps on the Internet and within no time, they will be able to be craps-shooting like the stars.