Probably the oldest gambling device known to man is the lowly dice. Thousands of years ago, men were gambling with shaped and marked pieces of bone and in fact, was often described as "rolling the bones". This may have derived from shamans who would attempt to foretell the future by looking at thrown bones but no one knows for sure.
A gamed called "Hazard" was played in England back in the 1100s that is often thought to be the ancestor of the modern craps game. This game of dice was played by throwing the dice over the wagers placed in the middle of the play area. It became a very popular form of gambling game, that spread throughout Europe by the 18th century, eventually making it to the New World with the settlers.
An American named John Winn set forth the proper rules for the game now called craps as well as designed the modern craps table in the 19th century. His rules are still followed today and the craps table in today’s modern casinos looks just as the earlier craps tables did.
Earlier this year, a New Jersey woman went to Atlantic City for the weekend and ended up setting the world’s record for the longest craps roll. Patricia Demauro rolled 154 times, taking four hours and 18 minutes! The previous record had been set in Las Vegas twenty years before.
What is more unusual is that this was only Patricia’s second time playing the game of craps. When she went in to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, she was just looking to have an evening of fun. Instead, she broke a record and ending up winning right around $180,000.
