Still Rolling

Before playing cards hit the market, dice was all the rage.

While people had to wait for paper to be invented before they could play cards, dice games had already been played for hundreds of years with stones, wood and even knucklebones.

One of the earliest documented dice games was called Hazard. Popular theory has it that it began in the Middle East where it was called Azzahr (the Arabic word for 'die'). The game made it to France and became known as Hasard. Then the English learn to play, called it Hazard.

As oceans were crossed and new nations were discovered, the game, popular amongst sailors, traveled too. Somehow it came to be found in New Orleans in the 1800's with a variety of rules and odds, depending where you played. The Louisiana French then made a point of standardising and simplifying the game. They called the lowest roll 'crabes' and soon began referring to the game that way.

Ultimate it came to be known worldwide as craps.