Craps as we know the game today has originated from a game called Hazard. There are two theories prevalent about the origin of Hazard. One theory is that Sir William of Tyre invented the game so that his Crusaders had something to do while besieging the castle of Hazarth in 1125 CE. The other theory, backed by Encyclopedia Britannica, states that the game was actually in vogue in Arab countries at the time of the Crusades and that the Crusaders picked it up from there. The game was called ‘Al Zar’, which means dice in Arabic.
After the nights brought the game to England, it got firmly entrenched in the high society there. Chaucer refers to it many times in his Canterbury Tales. By the 17th century gambling houses for playing craps were established in England and fortunes were made and lost there. The French took to the game as well. It is said that they gave the game its present name. A roll of 2 was called ‘crabs’, which was corrupted to craps. There is also uncertainty over how the game reached America. Some say that the pilgrims brought in on the Mayflower, others say it was the French who brought it there.
In America the African Americans of the south learned the game from the French. A theory of apocryphal origin states it was the African Americans that gave the game its name. They called the French “Johnny Crapaud” because of the French fondness for eating frogs. “Crap” is the French word for toad. Because the French brought the game to the American South it was called Craps. In the early 19th century the evolution of Craps was in the hands of the African Americans. It is for this reason Craps was referred to as African Dominoes.
In the South it was not only the African Americans that played Craps. The game was popular with the white landowners as well. Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, a Louisiana landowner and politician, introduced the game in the riverboats on the Mississippi in New Orleans. From there the game went to the casinos of America. John Winn converted that game into the present format with the layouts and tables. In many casinos Craps was played with loaded dice. To counter that Winn introduced the concept of betting with the shooter or against him. If a player thinks that the dice is unfair he can always bet in a manner that should give him an advantage. Therefore he has no cause for complaint.
There is more money wagered in Craps than in any other gambling game. Craps is played in a formal setting in the most exquisite of land casinos or in the alleys and backyards in an informal manner. With the coming together of gambling software and the Internet Craps moved the virtual space. There is no online casino that does not offer craps. In online craps the roll of the dice are simulated through a Random Number Generator, which actually eliminates any chance of bias in the dice.
