The game of craps as we know it today has somewhat contested origins. Some gaming historians trace the game's history as far back as the Crusades. According to a number of historical sources, as soldiers drove pagans out from what was considered holy land, they passed the time by playing a much earlier version of craps called Hazard. Quite ironically, perhaps, many scholars believe that the origin of Hazard is in fact from the Arabic dice game called Al Zar. So perhaps, without consciously knowing it, the very soldiers who were zealously decimating non-Christian pagans were partaking of a gaming tradition whose origins lay with their enemies.
Geoffrey Chaucer, considered to be a definitively influencing Old English writer, mentions the game hazard in The Canterbury Tales. So at least historically, the game seems to owe much of its origins to war and bloodshed, which makes its appearance on the modern-day casino floor quite extraordinary.
The game Hazard grew in popularity in England, and by the 17th century there wasn't a single tavern in England where the game wasn't very well known. It was played frequently in luxury casinos and many of the nobility were fond of the game. Perhaps predictably, many lost enormous amount of fortunes playing it.
The French probably adopted the game from the English, but changed the name in order to distinguish themselves from the Englishmen. The French are thought to be the first to call this game craps, which is really a corruption of "crabs" - the name given to a player that rolls in 2 in Hazard. It's a controversial theory, because there seem to be equal number of sources that show the name "craps" to have originated in America as a mocking term of the Frenchmen.
What we know for sure is that craps also owes much of its development to the American South, where locals and African-Americans appropriated and developed it. It's not precisely known who took craps to America and how they did it, but many theories point to the influence of French settlers who displaced the British and moved south - eventually becoming what we know today as the Cajuns. This is the school of thought that claims that the moniker "craps" derives from the derogatory name for the French ("crapaud" being French for "toad"). Again, this has never been proven conclusively.
Much like poker, a key factor in the dissemination of craps throughout America and into the larger population was the influence of the great riverboats on the Mississippi that took travelers, itinerant gamblers, businessman, and many chancers throughout a wide variety of geographical locations.
During World War II, there developed an intensely popular steet version of craps amongst soldiers, who would play the game by using an old army blanket as a shooting surface. Much like their predecessors 1000 years earlier, these soldiers used craps as a way of parsing the time in between fighting life and death battles. And although craps had really been firmly established in the American consciousness before World War II, American soldiers helped to propagate the game even more as they left the war and took their affection for the game with them.
The history of craps is an uncertain one, and tends to draw from a wide variety of influences, histories, cultural traditions and migrations.
Geoffrey Chaucer, considered to be a definitively influencing Old English writer, mentions the game hazard in The Canterbury Tales. So at least historically, the game seems to owe much of its origins to war and bloodshed, which makes its appearance on the modern-day casino floor quite extraordinary.
The game Hazard grew in popularity in England, and by the 17th century there wasn't a single tavern in England where the game wasn't very well known. It was played frequently in luxury casinos and many of the nobility were fond of the game. Perhaps predictably, many lost enormous amount of fortunes playing it.
The French probably adopted the game from the English, but changed the name in order to distinguish themselves from the Englishmen. The French are thought to be the first to call this game craps, which is really a corruption of "crabs" - the name given to a player that rolls in 2 in Hazard. It's a controversial theory, because there seem to be equal number of sources that show the name "craps" to have originated in America as a mocking term of the Frenchmen.
What we know for sure is that craps also owes much of its development to the American South, where locals and African-Americans appropriated and developed it. It's not precisely known who took craps to America and how they did it, but many theories point to the influence of French settlers who displaced the British and moved south - eventually becoming what we know today as the Cajuns. This is the school of thought that claims that the moniker "craps" derives from the derogatory name for the French ("crapaud" being French for "toad"). Again, this has never been proven conclusively.
Much like poker, a key factor in the dissemination of craps throughout America and into the larger population was the influence of the great riverboats on the Mississippi that took travelers, itinerant gamblers, businessman, and many chancers throughout a wide variety of geographical locations.
During World War II, there developed an intensely popular steet version of craps amongst soldiers, who would play the game by using an old army blanket as a shooting surface. Much like their predecessors 1000 years earlier, these soldiers used craps as a way of parsing the time in between fighting life and death battles. And although craps had really been firmly established in the American consciousness before World War II, American soldiers helped to propagate the game even more as they left the war and took their affection for the game with them.
The history of craps is an uncertain one, and tends to draw from a wide variety of influences, histories, cultural traditions and migrations.
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