History of Craps Game

The casino games of craps evolved over thousands of years. It is inextricably interwoven with the development of humanity. Prehistoric cavemen cast six-sided bones called astragalas that came from the ankles of clove-footed animals. The mythology of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome relates how the gods amused themselves at dice, with the destiny of the world riding on the outcome. Dice have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and in the burial chambers of the Pyramids. The Pharaohs as well as the Romans rolled dice for amusement, divination, and judicial decision. When Julius Caesar defied the Roman Senate and led his victorious army across the Rubicon, he took his announcement from the vocabulary of the dice shooter: Iacta alea est, or "the die is cast."

Even in the age of chivalry, knights entertained themselves and their ladies with games of dice. Gaming schools and guilds flourished, although by then gambling was frowned on by the church and it was frequently prohibited in various regions. Then, as now-, the nobility was exempted, and the laws were enforced against the lower classes, especially on working days.

Today's casino craps can be traced directly - to the games of hazard, first played by English Crusaders during the siege of an Arabian castle in the 12th century. Tosses of 2, 3, or 12 were referred to as "crabs." By the early 1800s, when the games was introduced to America in they port city of New Orleans, crabs had become craps and the rules had nearly evolved to those used today. Spreading rapidly up the Mississippi with the riverboat gamblers, and across the country via Pullman-car sharks, craps quickly replaced faro as the most popular gambling games. John H. Win is credited with banking the first craps games permitting right and wrong betting, charging bettors a 5 percent commission. Shortly after, Win designed the Philadelphia Layout, very much like the craps layout of today. It included a Don't Pass Line, which eventually evolved into the Don't Pass Bar 12 line, and eliminated the 5 percent commission. This feature took the games out of the streets and into the casinos.