History of Craps

When you’re standing at a packed and boisterous casino craps table ready to throw the dice, the last thing you are thinking about is the origins of craps. But when you’re away from the casino craps tables, it’s actually quite interesting to learn about the history of the game. And since it’s very unlikely that you’re standing at a craps table now, let’s take a few moments to go over a rich history that extends back thousands of years.

While the main concept of casino craps is only several hundred years old, the foundation for craps was set thousands of years ago when prehistoric people played rudimentary dice games. Up until 5000 B.C., they used dice made out of sheep knucklebones, which weren’t exactly the elaborate six-sided dice we have today. However, more extensive casino dice designs were created out of ivory and wood after 5000 B.C.

By 2500 B.C., the Egyptians and Chinese were playing dice games with intricate rules. Around 2000 B.C., people even started using cubic dice with marks similar to what we have today.

Today craps is stereotyped as a rich and lavish casino game filled with tuxedo-clad men and glamorous women. Of course, Sir William of Tyre and his knights never would’ve imagined this when they invented craps direct ancestor - Hazard - in the dusty Arabian deserts. Sir William of Tyre’s soldiers played Hazard while they were laying siege to the castle ‘Hazarth’ in 1125 A.D.

As mentioned before, there had been many dice games before Hazard, but none of them included the complex rules that would eventually spawn craps. In Hazard, only one person throws the dice (the caster), while other people can make bets too. The caster starts things off by designating a number between 5 and 9 to be the “main.” The basic goal is to throw the main before a 2 or 3; however, the rules get more intricate if a number besides the main, 2 or 3 is thrown.

Hazard’s rules share several similarities with modern-day craps, and helped lay the groundwork for what would happen next. 

Despite being invented in the early 12^th century, Hazard didn’t take off until the 16^th century, when various casino houses and pubs across England began frequently playing this dice game. Hazard is even mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” as an extremely popular game during this era.

Eventually, the French started playing Hazard heavily, and they changed the name from Hazard to craps; craps is actually a misspelling of “crabs,” which is the name for rolling a 2 and losing in Hazard. In any case, both British and French settlers further expanded the game by bringing craps with them to America in the 18^th century.

It didn’t take long for craps to gain popularity in America - especially among the French settlers who moved down towards what is now Louisiana (Cajuns). As craps progressed through the South, many territories and states picked up on the game. Craps really became a popular pastime on Mississippi riverboats, where gambling was the norm.

However, no significant advances were made with the game until John H. Winn made several changes to craps. First, Winn’s rule changes dictated that people could either bet with the shooter or against the shooter; this prevented casinos from cheating people with crooked dice since there were bets on both sides of the action. In addition to this, Winn also added lots of popular bets such as pass line, don’t pass line, Big 6, Big 8 and more.

Seeing as how Winn’s rules are still widely used in casinos across the world, it’s no wonder why he is referred to as “the father of modern craps.”

Not much has changed in terms of structure from when Winn made rule changes that would alter craps forever. However, there have been many advances in terms of the regulation and refinement of craps.

For one thing, craps tables are more sleek and sophisticated than ever since casinos seek to create a lavish atmosphere. Another improvement in craps is that crooked casinos rarely exist in the game today, which means players don’t have to deal with loaded dice or any other sort of scams. But the biggest change of all is the growth of online craps!

Now people can just jump on a computer and play craps at sites like 888.com from their home. The game is exactly the same as in the casino, except for the fact that you don’t have to waste time driving/flying to land-based casinos. Plus the craps bonuses at online casinos are better than what’s seen at land-based venues because cyber casinos don’t have the same heavy operating costs.

Anyways, it’s absolutely amazing how the basic idea of craps has went from the knucklebones of sheep to being able to play craps from a computer in your own living room. Who knows what advances will be made to the game in the future.