Craps History

English and French Origins

Craps finds its origin in an old English game called hazard. Hazard was originally played by working-class people, and in the late 17th, early 18th century, noblemen began to play the game too.

The famous author, Geoffrey Chaucer (1342 – 1400), in his book, “Canterbury Tales” mentioned the game. It is well known that if we want to find out about the culture of the day, that “Canterbury Tales” is a good source from which to learn information of this type.

Hazard traveled to France, where the name was changed to crabs. The name crabs was taken from the game itself. The lowest possible throw in hazard was called “crabs”.

Arrival in America

Some opinions say that the French took the game with them to their colony Acadia (later Nova Scotia). After they lost the territory to the English, they went to Louisiana. In Louisiana, the Cajuns pronounced the word “crabs” as either “crebs” or “creps”. In the early 1800s, a simplified version of hazard, created by Bernard de Mandeville, was spread throughout America via the steamboats of the Mississippi.

Other opinions say that the English brought hazard to America on the Mayflower.

It is of course possible that both the French and the English brought craps to America.

Modern Day Craps

In the early 1900s, John H. Winn changed the game, enabling the players to bet on the outcome of the dice (whether they are right or wrong). Winn introduced the don’t pass bets which allowed players to bet against or with the shooter. This change helped to do away with cheating, as many players wanted to use weighted dice to get the desired outcome. Now that betting could go either way, this became irrelevant. Winn also made some changes on the layout of the craps table. The version that he created is used in casinos today.

Casino craps are also known as Las Vegas craps. When gambling became legal, and craps was introduced into Nevada casinos in the 1930s, it created much excitement as most of the other games available at the time were card-based games, and this game added a new dimension to the gaming floor.

The modern day version of craps was spread further afield during World War II when soldiers played it to keep themselves busy during quiet times. This is how we have craps nearly everywhere in the world today.