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"Craps | History"

The dice are the oldest gambling tools. According to Scarne’s research, the dice and the games associated with them can be found all over the ancient world. Roman Emperors Augustin, Nero and Caligula were devoted dice players. They even tried to cheat at the game. Modern looking cubical die was found in Egypt and it was dated at 600 B.C. Indian ancient epic "Mahabharata" tells the stories about the warriors throwing the dice and loosing fortunes. Koreans were also big fans of the dice in the early days. American Indians used four-sided knucklebones to create their dice games. The fact that Arabic language uses the same word for a knucklebone and a die means that the dice were popular in Arab world for a longer time that anybody can remember.

The origin of the dice can be traced to a prehistoric time when a primordial fortuneteller used to throw sacred arrows, bones, sticks and stones upon the ground trying to predict the future for his tribe. Before they became gambling devices, the dice were a shaman’s attributes. After that they went through a long evolution of shape, size, form and markings. They were made of wood, stones, bones, animal teeth and horns, nutshells and seeds. In Greek and Roman civilizations the dice were made of more expensive materials like ivory, precious stones and metals, and porcelain. The material for modern casino dice (perfect dice) is hard cellulose. The dice edges are razor sharp, and the corners are needle sharp. The cellulose is transparent to avoid dice loading.

The history of the dice and the dice games in general is few thousands years old. However, the history of modern craps is a lot shorter – only hundred years old. The direct predecessor of modern craps was an english game of "Hazard". There is historical evidence that it was played by the soldiers in twelfth century during the Third Crusade, led by the three most powerful kings of Western Europe: Frederick Barbarossa of The Holy Roman Empire, Philip Augustus of France and Richard The Lion-Heart of England. Hazard was probably created long before the crusaders. It is possible that the first English settlers on "Mayflower" brought it to America.

English Hazard became very popular in New Orleans around 1800, where French called it craps. After that rules and odds changed many times. Few new variations of the game popped up which were simpler and faster than original Hazard. One variation – Table Off game – became especially popular with gambling establishments at the end of 19th century. At that time casino tables and a simple layout, featuring the 6 and 8, the Field, the Win and the Come bets, were introduced. However, the players could bet only with the dice against the House.

Finally, John H. Winn revolutionized the game and made it possible for the craps players to bet right and wrong. He improved a layout accordingly and drew a space for Don’t Pass bets. In 1931 casino gambling was legalized in the State of Nevada and Casino Craps (Las Vegas style) became popular all over the world.

As long as craps existed the craps players tried to beat the house anyway they could. Hundreds of betting and progressive craps systems were created, the crooked dice were used and the dream to control the perfect dice on casino tables preoccupied the brain and imagination of the crapshooters.