The most ancient tools of gambling are the dice. Scarne’s research into crap’s history shows that throughout the ancient world the dice and its associated games were everywhere. Examples of obsessive dice players were the Roman emperors such as Augustus, Caligula and Nero. Even cheating at the game was part of their goal. A cubical dice rather modern in appearance appeared as early as six hundred before Christ in Egypt. The Mahabharata ancient Indian epic relates of soldiers casting dice and losing enormous sums. Long ago even the Koreans loved to play dice. Four-sided knucklebones were used for dice among the American Indians. And the dice was played among the Arabs virtually from the beginning of their history attested to by the fact that Arabic for knucklebone was the identical word for dice.

Prehistoric times can be said to be the era of the dice’s origin. In attempting to prophesy his tribe’s future the early fortuneteller would cast stones and sticks as well as sacred arrows on the ground. The dice evolved as the qualities of the shaman prior to their future as gambling means. Following that they evolved in markings, shape, form and size. Seeds, nutshells, horns, animal teeth, bones, stone and wood were the essence of their structure. Later they became shaped from porcelain, metals, precious stones and ivory for the more sophisticated Greek and Roman cultures. Hard cellulose is the modern material used in manufacturing the modern casino dice. The corners are extremely sharp, and the edges of the dice are just as sharp. To prevent loading the dice, the dice is made from transparent cellulose.

In general dice and its associated games has a few thousands years of history. Yet there is only some one hundred years of a much briefer history of modern craps. Hazard, a game played in England, is the name of the game that was modern craps’ immediate forebear. According to historical sources, during the twelfth century’s Third Crusade famed for its leadership by Europe’s most renowned monarchs, England’s Richard the Lionhearted, the Holy Roman Empire’s Frederick Barbarosa and France’s Philip Augustus, was also noted for the fact the soldier played this game during the Crusade. From there, it’s probable that the game was conveyed to America by the Mayflower’s first English settlers.

Approximately at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the English game of Hazard, now known by the French settlers as craps, became a favorite game in New Orleans. From then on the odds and rules of the game changed frequently. The original game of Hazard stayed the most simple and speedy of all the new varieties of the game which were now becoming known. Table Off game, a modification of the original game, became a special favorite by the end of the nineteenth century among numerous gambling concerns. That was the period when innovations were brought in with casino tables and a basic layout comprising the six and the eight, the Field, Come bets and the Win. Nevertheless, only against the House were players allowed to place bets.

It was John H. Winn who in the end carried out a game revolution, enabling the idea of both wrong and right for crap players to bet. Winn planned an area for Don’t Pass bets and generally made improvements in the layout. In the state of Nevada casino gambling became legal in 1931, and throughout the world the game of craps – according to the style of Las Vegas – evolved into a favorite game.

Throughout the history of craps players have been endeavoring to beat the house in anyway possible. Progressive craps methods for betting successively in their hundreds were invented, weighted dice were sometimes used, and the wish-dream in the minds and hearts of all crapshooters was how to keep control of the perfect dice rolling on the tables in the casinos.

Back to Craps Home