OUR LATEST ISSUE
SITE SEARCH
Craps a history
By: Staff writer
Craps is one of the oldest gambling games
Craps is one of the oldest gambling games
Advertorial
It may be a popular online casino game now but craps is also probably one of the oldest gambling games played for money.
Archaeological records seem to show that as long as man had possible thumbs he was playing some kind of dice game, indeed we’re probably all familiar with the picture of Roman soldiers playing a game that looked like craps at the foot of Christ’s crucifixion. But where does the modern game stem from?
The name craps comes from the French word for toad “crapauds”. Some reckon that it was the crouching, toadlike position of the players that earned the game its name crapauds while others believe that the term was an English slur for the Creoles living in New Orleans who played the game so much. Another theory says that it is simply a Creole-accented pronunciation of “crabs” which is another name for the game's losing combination of two ones. Either way the name would eventually be shortened to Craps.
But its roots go further back than the name craps. Some scholars attribute the game to the Middle Ages when crusaders brought back popular dice games like Azzahr, from the Middle East.
They claim that the name Azzahr became “Hasard” in French and “Hazard” in English. By the 1700s it was being played in early casinos (gambling houses) and was given more Anglo-Saxon friendly rules. So much so it eventually overtook Azzahr and became popular among gamblers and aristocrats alike.
The game also spread to the US where many claim that it was Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville who was widely known as both a gambler and a politician who introduced the game there. It was eventually spread across the USA via the riverboats with the simplicity of it making it a popular game not only on the streets but in casinos as well.
It was in casinos that it underwent its final transformation. While street craps remained relatively straight forward requiring only two dice bank craps became far more elaborate. New rules were created, an elaborate betting system was created and the craps table also developed its own entourage of hangers on.
And it is bank craps that attracts millions of people to play at online casinos. Being able to play the game online at home makes it more accessible to people as it strips away the casino etiquette making it easier to play. And with sites like SkyVegas you can even play it while watching your favourite Sky TV programme.
