Craps

A Brief History
The exact origin of Craps like many things in life is disputed, it may be derived from ancient Arab bone rolling games / rituals that were used to predict the will of the Gods from which many dice games are said to have evolved, it probably then worked its way through France to England and then on to America. There was an English dice game called Hazard which migrated to America with the early settlers towards the end of the eighteenth century, Hazard gives the bank a good advantage and it is believed that Craps was developed as a fairer version, the name possibly coming from the term Crabs, the roll of two aces in the game of Hazard. Craps took over from Faro as the main gambling game in America and is now the most popular dice game in the world.

Overview of the Game

Craps is played with two dice which are thrown by a 'shooter' on a long table with boards from one to two feet high surrounding the table.

The game is played in two stages, after the initial bets are placed the shooter throws the dice. If a seven or eleven is thrown that is a natural and the throw is over, players betting on the shooter win. If two, three or twelve are thrown these are known as 'craps' and bets on the shooter are lost. If on the other hand the shooter rolls a four, five, six, eight, nine or ten this number is known as his point. In a land casino this is marked with a disc called a buck.

The shooter then continues to throw until he either rolls the number again 'makes his point', in which case bets on the shooter win, or throws a seven when bets on the shooter loose.

These simple rules are added to by a range of bets that players can make both for and against the shooter, see our Craps Bets page for descriptions of the various bets and our Craps Odds page to calculate your best options.