A Brief History of Craps

Author: Neha Agrawal

Everybody knows that Craps is a casino game, and everybody knows that Craps involves a table and dice. However, what most people don’t know is how to play, or the history of the game itself. While there are many guides out there that can teach people how to play the game, the history of Craps is somewhat hazier to find.

We know that Craps originated from the English game of Hazard. The game of Craps is believed to have originated around the time of the Crusades in the Middle East, and the game would later be heavily altered by medieval French gamblers. The game wasn’t altered too much after that, until it was eventually brought to New Orleans by Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville.

However, at that time the game of Craps was known to be flawed and could be easily rigged. So, John H. Winn, introduced the “Don’t Pass” bet that altered the game once more. By and large, after that final major alteration, the Craps game hasn’t really changed again.

As time moved on, the game gained in popularity. By the time of World War II in the early nineteen forties, Street Craps, a variant of Crapaud, became hugely popular. African-Americans, after the war, also took to the craze and decided to call their game “dice” due to not playing the game on a Craps table , but instead on the street. The name of Craps itself is thus only really related to the table that it is played on, and not the actual dice game itself.

Because Craps was such a mainstay and a popular game in the casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, it was inevitable really; that when the online casino was invented that Craps would become a part of it. Despite being woeful at first, due the lack of decent graphics and computer power, the game has come on in leaps and bounds as the technology has improved.

For reasons unknown, the popularity of Craps has never really taken off like that of other top casino games in the online gambling world, such as poker, blackjack, roulette, and of course, the fabled online slots.

There are, however, a series of specialized online Craps sites that devote all their energies to the online game, and more. These sites provide players with detailed strategy and betting guides, and are the number one place for a Craps enthusiast to play for money, or for free, online.