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All gambling games have an interesting history, but perhaps none more so than craps. Mans desire to throw two dice and tempt the fates and gods with winning or losing, dates back more than just centuries. During the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, playing dice was a popular game. This game may even date back further and the reason the dice are often referred to as “bones” is because they were made of bone.

If you think about divining and traditional healing in ancient societies, bones, stones, runes and other cryptic devices were often thrown as an attempt to read signs for the future. This still takes place where ancient cultures maintain ancient traditions.
Craps today, in terms of the amount of money wagered, is considered to be biggest casino game ever. It is the most socially engaging casino game and whether it takes place in online casinos or in a back alley, the dice are used to take a gamble, a risk and a challenge. Fortunes are lost and made this way!

Recorded history tells us that casino craps descend from the times of the Crusades. The infidels played a game and the Crusaders brought this game back to Europe and England. The name of the game was Hazard, which is a bastardization of the Arabic name for the dice. This is ‘al zar’ or ‘azzah’, and makes the most sense. There is also a story of the siege of a fortress known as Hazarth or Asart which took place in 1125 AD, and the name of the game being played while the siege took place was supposedly dice. Who really knows where the roots of the name truly lies? But at some stage “Hazard” did become “Craps”.

Hazard was popular in the Middle Age in England it gets a mention in the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The game won and lost fortunes for English noblemen in the 17th century and by all accounts was a simple game for settlers to pack up and bring with them in their colonization of America.

This is where Hazard became Craps and it was most popularly played by the French who settled the Southern States after being displaced again by the British. As it went South it became craps, and closer to casino craps we play today. A losing throw of 2 in Hazard is known as “Crabs” and this is more than likely how the name came about, although there are other more colourful and romantic versions. Its invention has also been attributed to African Americans .

The game was wild (it still is) and it was played on Mississippi Riverboats. John H Winn developed craps further and he is recognized as the father of modern craps. It is the story of how this game got into casinos and into online casino.

So, if you have a fancy for playing craps, you know that you will be playing a game with a long and colourful history, which makes it one of the most popularly played casino games ever. Check it out at William Hill Casino online, and don’t let your lady blow on another man’s dice if you want luck to be a lady for you. This is advice from Frank Sinatra.