Intro and Craps Game History

Craps is the oldest confirmed record of a game of chance in which dice were used. The game dates back to 1573 BC by the Egyptians. The modern game of craps is an American game that was developed on the Mississippi and other inland waterways during the great steamboat era of the 1800s. Today's modern craps game is considered the fastest, noisiest, and most exciting game in the casino. It also has the best odds for the player of any casino game. There are several takes on the true craps history. To help you better understand and play online craps, we detail two takes on craps history below. The first take on craps history - According to Richard Epstein, craps is descended from an earlier game known as Hazard, that dates to the Middle Ages. The formal rules for Hazard were established by Montmort early in the 1700s. The origin of the name craps is shrouded in doubt, but it may have come from the English crabs, or from the French Crapeaud (for toad). There is also evidence that a form of craps can be dated back to the time of the Holy Roman Empire. Soldiers in the Roman Legions used to shave down pig knuckles into the shapes of cubes, and toss them onto their inverted shields as a form of entertainment while in camp. Hence we get the term "to roll the bones". We do know that the game we know today as "craps" came to the United States from Europe . Three are two general forms of craps played today that can be traced back in craps history - "Street Craps" and "Bank Craps". In recent times, the Internet version - Online craps - has also become very popular. Street Craps is the game you find played, well, on the street. A shooter establishes a point, then tries to make that point. Bettors either bet with the shooter (on the point) or against the shooter (on the 7). Someone must "fade" the shooter (cover the bet) in order for the game to progress. Bank Craps is what we normally see in the casino. The "bank" part of the name comes from the fact that someone, or something (like a casino) must "bank" the game; that is, cover all bets of the players. In this manner, the players are playing against the house. The second take on craps history - by author Mark Pilarski states Back before the Middle Ages, the Arabs played a game using little numbered cubes, called azzahr (meaning "the die"). The game showed up across the Mediterranean in France, where it was renamed hasard, then jumped the English Channel to England some time before 1500 AD where it was given the English spelling of the same word, hazard. The roll of lowest value in that game was called crabs. The French, trying to be amiable, adopted that term from the English, but spelling it the French way as crabes. In the early 1700's, the game crossed the Atlantic to the French colony of Acadia. In 1755, the French lost Acadia to the English who promptly renamed it Nova Scotia and chucked out the French-speaking Acadians, who roamed around a bit and finally relocated in Louisiana, where they were called (as they still are) Cajuns, and developed a language called Louisiana French. They still played the good old dice game, but dropped the title of hasard and called the game simply crebs or creps, which was their spelling of the French crabes. By 1843, the Cajun word came into American English as craps. People were apparently careful for a while not to omit the final s for fear of confusion with a slang term having a totally different meaning, but that's another story. By 1885, such expressions as crapsgame, crapstable, and crapsshooter were found to be just too finicky so the final s was dropped where it served no useful purpose as in composites like craptable, crapshooter, crap game, etc., and retained where it refers only to the game (game of craps) or the losing roll (he craps out, he rolled craps) or where it would be too hard to pronounce (she crapped out, rather than she crapsed out). Click to continue and learn how to play the game of craps Back to top