Archive for September 22nd, 2009
The History of Craps
The word Craps, the title of the game, originates from the French way of pronouncing the word Crabs, which nicknamed Hazard’s previous game. During the eighteenth century the game developed, and Hazard was played by nobility in Europe prior to its arrival in America via Arcadia, the French colony of Louisiana.
Bernard de Mandeville from New Orleans, adapted the game of Hazard in 1813 into a more simple form, and converted it into the first issue of the Craps game. This new version of Hazard moved along the Mississippi River by steamboat, and became distributed throughout Northern America. However, there was a big flaw in Mandville’s game of Craps, and it was that the game was exposed to using fixed dice because of the rules it used in betting. The problem was solved by John H. Winn, who brought in the option for players to places bets on right or wrong in the Craps’ table’s layout, where there was also a place for bets of the Don’t Pass type. The game went through a revolutionary change due to his adaptations, which enabled participants to place bets against or for the roller by removing the efficacy of fixed dice.
If we go back further into history, there are those who think that Craps was invented by legionnaires in the Roman army during the time of the Holy Roman Empire, when they played with pig knucklebones formed into cubes. For their enjoyment they would roll the bones onto their shields.
Soldiers during the Second World War also apparently played Craps in its new mode as a form of fun, which increased greatly in popularity as a method for them to relieve themselves of war’s boredom. As casino Craps took conquered the world of gambling, even films used the game in their scripts.
During the course of time, especially in the 1990s, the Craps game became considerably less popular as casino specials such as the slot machines which started attracting the gambling majority. Just lately, the game of Craps has been displaying signals of a revival in the gambling sphere since the 21st century’s advent. The progress in technology, for instance, the possibility to play Craps on the Internet, has also aided Craps revival.
You can be certain of one thing, namely, Craps has been played for centuries and in the gambling tradition will go on maintaining a place of importance.
