craps

The game Craps is believed to be a descendant of the ancient game Hazard, which was invented around 1125 AD. This game is believed to be invented by the Englishman, Sir Williams of Tyre during the siege of a castle called Hazarth or Asart, therefore the name of the game is corruption of the name of that castle. But there is another theory for the game origins, in Encyclopedia Britannica is written that Hazard came from Arabic words 'al zar' or 'azzah' which in english means "the dice" and so this imply that Hazard (later Craps) is a Arabic game.

After its invention the game became extremely popular in England, frequently mentioned in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and played by the Englishmen through the centuries. Sometime around 15-16th century the French took up playing the Hazard and its believed that they changed the name to Craps, using a corruption in the name given to a losing throw of 2 when playing Hazard, known as 'crabs'.

Later the game arrived in America through the French Louisiana colony of Arcadia. It was later simplified and turned to the first version of craps in 1813 by Bernard de Mandeville of New Orleans. With these changes the game start to spread in the United States of America and became popular through the rich men. But the Mandeville's version of Craps had a major flaw - it was vulnerable to to the use of fixed dice to its betting rules, this problem was fixed by John H. Winn who introduced the possibility for players to bet 'right' or 'wrong' in the layout of the craps table event included a space for 'Don't Pass' bets. With these changes the flaw was eliminated and the game - revolutionized.

Over the years the Craps became more and more popular. In the World Wars, soldiers were playing the game using the version we know today to entertain themselves. Even movies were using the game in their story lines as casino craps took over the gambling word.

Around the 1990's the game wasn't so popular due to the large variates of gambling games and slot machines in the casinos, but recently the popularity of Craps has gotten bigger and wider and so this game with centuries of traditions will hold a major place in the gamble world.