The Oldest Gambling Tool - The Dice

The dice are the oldest gambling tools. 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 knuckle bones to create their dice games.


Regarding the history of craps you will find two theories. One of them says that in ancient times times rolling of bones was done to divine the will of the gods, and that evolved to various dice games (including Craps). 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. In Cuba some fortune tellers through sea shells and read them. After the dice became to be used as gambling devices they went through a long evolution of shape, size, form and markings. First 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. In the today casino the dice is made of hard cellulose. The dice edges are razor sharp, and the corners are needle sharp. The cellulose is transparent to avoid dice loading.


Another theory for the history of craps speaks about an Arab game called azzahr (meaning "the die") played with little numbered cubes. Then the game cross the Mediterranean and arrived in France and the game of azzahr was renamed hasard. Some time before the 1500s AD the game went in England and the game took the name of hazard, which is the English spelling of the French word hasard. In the English game of hazard, the roll of a lowest value had the name of crabs. There is historical evidence that it was played by the soldiers in twelfth century during the Third Crusade. Frenches adopted the term of crabs and in the early 1700's, the game crossed the Atlantic to the French colony of Acadia (Canada).


In 1755, the French lost Acadia to the English who promptly renamed it Nova Scotia and banished the French-speaking Acadians, who migrated a great distance and finally relocated to Louisiana, where they were called (as they still are) Cajuns. There they developed a language called Louisiana French. They still played the good old dice game, but dropped the title of hasard and called the game simply crebs or creps, which was their modified spelling of the French crabes .


In the end, the theory in which all historians seem to agree is that the modern craps was brought in the early 1700's from Europe to North America. The game was first played on riverboats in the United States and then moved west with the frontier as the country grew.


Around 1800 the English game hazard became very popular in New Orleans, where French called it craps. Since then the rules and the odds of the game changed many times in new variations simpler and faster than the 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


The first person who revolutionized the game was John H. Winn. He made it possible for the craps players to bet right and wrong and 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.


Today there are two types of craps games played. One of them is the Street Craps and is the variety played in informal settings. The betting is simplified, and someone must cover the bet in order for the game to progress. The second type of craps is Bank Craps, which is the form played in land based and online casinos. The betting is more complicated and the house covers the bets (banks the game) so the players are in effect playing against the house.


Online craps offers interesting possibilities for players in general, but the online craps is played after the same rules as the casino craps. Making smart bets over dumb ones is something that will never change. Although, online Craps it is a more calm and untroubled playing environment where the player can relax and in theory, make better betting decisions.