craps poker

The first opinion, according to Richard Epstein, is that craps is descended from an earlier game known as Hazard, that dates to the Middle Ages. The formal rules for Hazard were established by Montmort early in the 1700s. The origin of the name craps is shrouded in doubt, but it may have come from the English crabs, or from the French Crapeaud (for toad).
There is also evidence that a form of craps can be dated back to the time of the Holy Roman Empire. Soldiers in the Roman Legions used to shave down pig knuckles into the shapes of cubes, and toss them onto their inverted shields as a form of entertainment while in camp. Hence we get the term "to roll the bones".
It is known that the game of Craps came to the United States from Europe.
Three are two general forms of craps played today that can be traced back in craps history - "Street Craps" and "Bank Craps". In recent times, the Internet version - Online craps - has also become very popular.
The second take on Craps history, according to Mark Pilarski, is that Craps dates back before the Middle Ages. The Arabs played a game using little numbered cubes, called azzahr (meaning "the die"). The game showed up across the Mediterranean in France, where it was renamed hasard, then jumped the English Channel to England some time before 1500 AD where it was given the English spelling of the same word, hazard. The roll of lowest value in that game was called crabs. The French, trying to be amiable, adopted that term from the English, but spelling it the French way as crabes. In the early 1700's, the game crossed the Atlantic to the French colony of Acadia.
In 1755, the French lost Acadia to the English who promptly renamed it Nova Scotia and chucked out the French-speaking Acadians, who roamed around a bit and finally relocated in Louisiana, where they were called (as they still are) Cajuns, and 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 spelling of the French crabes.
By 1843, the Cajun word came into American English as craps. People were apparently careful for a while not to omit the final s for fear of confusion with a slang term having a totally different meaning, but that's another story.
By 1885, such expressions as crapsgame, crapstable, and crapsshooter were found to be just too finical, so the final s was dropped where it served no useful purpose as in composites like craptable, crapshooter, crap game, etc., and retained where it refers only to the game (game of craps) or the losing roll (he craps out, he rolled craps) or where it would be too hard to pronounce (she crapped out, rather than she crapsed out).The Troy movie gave rise to many heated discussions of a both spectacular and historical nature. But for me it posed another question: what leisure activities did the Greek soldiers have according to Homer's classic, The Iliad. I can’t believe that they were only fighting and resting, but maybe they were also gambling. Sieges of cities are usually much less epic than is depicted in movies. So there should have also been periods of relative calm. With all those warriors left to themselves, they must have looked for some entertainment. As all the women were on the other side of the wall, they had little else to do but gamble. And my guess was confirmed. They played dice! The dice in turn was invented by one of the Greek heroes named Palamed to help his fellow warriors cope with boredom. He was praised by them and should still be by all craps players today.
Troy is both a legend and history. And nowadays there are a number of casino’s which make legends online with the help of history. You know them well: Carsands.com, Caribbeansunpoker.com, Aztecrichescasino.com, Captaincookscasino.com, Goldenpalace.com.
So I would like to give you – readers of Gambling Gates – some feel for ancient gambling. In the following series of articles we`ll travel though the ages to different countries to see how our ancestors gambled.The tales of many cultures and peoples all over the world hold more than a handful of references to games of chance. They are often the pearls of these stories often being more exciting or even dramatic than the tales themselves. Greek and Roman myths mention Fortune – the Goddess of Chance and Gambling, and Tyho – the Goddess of Luck. And both the Irish and Scottish peoples have a number of tales about unusual bets and about fortunes not claimed by the victors.
But the most numerous dramatic tales of gambling are found in the folk culture and literature of Asia, especially South-East Asia, Japan, the Philippines and India. Asia has produced a myriad of popular legends and tales of games of chance and unusual bets. Some of these legends have very ancient origins. And while some of them relate to games of chance with the gods, many others have an absolutely secular nature. Another continent rich in gambling legends is North America. North-American Indians represent almost half of all the historical evidence from known world cultures that mention gambling. So it is no wonder the Red Indian’s gambling has spread so widely.
Most of the cultures we are going to speak about enjoyed games of dice. It really is one of the most simple, yet most exciting of the games of chance. Playing dice is one of the age-old leisure occupations. The first dice games in human history were played in ancient India, China, Libya, Egypt, Greece, and in the Roman Empire. Many ancient nations – North American Indians, Mayas, Aztecs, Eskimos, and Africans – used to play dice, made from peach or plum stones, plant seeds, nuts, bison or sheep bones, deer horns, beaver teeth, ceramics, bronze, agate, onyx, black amber, mountain crystal, marble, or many other materials.
So, let’s go further. As we began by mentioning Troy, Greece, and Palamed, our retrospective should definitely start with Ancient Greece. So, look forward to Ancient Greece: Gambling with the Gods and Heroes.