The History of Craps Online and Off

Craps is among the oldest casino games still played today, and has remained almost entirely unchanged for hundreds of years. The history of craps mostly tracks the movements of the game beginning in the early twelfth century.

The first recorded instance of the activity was called hazard, and it was played among crusaders in 1125. The game experienced a sudden surge of popularity in England during the 17th and 18th centuries, and at around this time began to become popular throughout the rest of Europe as well. It was popular enough in France that there is speculation that the name comes from the French word for toad (crapaud).The title remained solely in Europe until the Mayflower set sail for modern-day America, carrying hazard with it.

The first recorded appearance of hazard in America credited to Bernard de Marigny, who is believed to have brought it to America when he arrived there from England. At around this time, hazard was played largely on Mississippi riverboats, where a dice maker named John H. Winn began to adapt it to be simpler and more difficult to cheat. One such change was to alter the rules to include the ability for players to choose whether they wanted to bet with or against the shooter. Winn's version of the game is the version that is played in casinos today, and he is very well-known amongst players for his changes.

Since John H. Winn, there have been only a few changes to the nature of this title. The most substantial change since then is an increased tendency for significantly bigger odds bets and side bets. Besides that, the only major change began in 1994, when online casinos began to add craps to their inventories, where the only difference is that the dice being rolled are online. Besides that, however, the game remains fairly unchanged from when it was played on Mississippi's rivers. In fact, it has changed so relatively little since the crusades that the history of craps is more of a description of where it was at different points in history, leading up to online and offline casinos in the world today.