Dazadi.com Blog

Dice are the oldest gambling tools, dating back to the Roman Empire when they were made of marked animal teeth. Craps‘ oldest ancestor, however, was a game called “hazard,” which didn’t appear until the 12th century. Hazard’s origins are uncertain. Some claim that the fact that “al zar” is Arabic for dice is evidence that the game is Arabic in origin. Others researchers claim that it took its name from Hazarth Castle, where Sir William of Tyre and his knights would play dice during the quiet period of a siege in 1125.

Craps was extremely popular in England. Geoffrey Chaucer, the first great author of the English language, mentions the game quite often in the Canterbury Tales. Hazard is in many respects similar to the contemporary game of craps. It is believed that the word “craps” comes from a throw in Hazard called “crabs,” which is Hazard’s equivalent of “snake eyes,” meaning the lowest roll of 2.

The game made its way to America in the early 18th century through French settlers in the colony of Arcadia. In 1755, the British began attacking Arcadians and burning their homes at the onset of the French and Indian War. During this time thousands of Arcadians left the colony, either voluntarily or by force, and many migrated to Louisiana. There Hazard made its evolution into Craps in 1813, when a gambler named Bernard de Mandeville simplified the game.

Craps spread slowly up the Mississippi River via Casino Riverboats. A dice maker named John H. Winn brought the game into its final, modern stage when he wrote in a “Don’t Pass” box on the layout. This became known as the “Philadephia Layout” because of the city in which it was born. This allows players to bet on the dice losing, and was done in part to render “shaved” or “fixed” dice essentially useless.