Question of the Day - 24 September 2021

Dice, in one form or another, have been used for the purposes of gambling for thousands of years. The Hindu Vedas, the world’s oldest sacred text, which date back to 1700 B.C.E., contain numerous references to the people’s chief amusements — chariot racing and dice throwing. The dice were made of astragal, sheep anklebones, and cheating with loaded dice or sleight of hand was commonplace.

In fact, the Vedas include the first recorded mention of a crooked dice marathon, in which the victim, a local king, gambled away his kingdom, then his fortune, then his very life. After losing the bet in which he agreed to commit suicide, he bet his wife the queen and lost her too. The queen objected, rightly, that since the king had forfeited his own life, he was no longer in a position to rule over hers.

Archaeologists unearthed cubes that they deduced were used for gambling in Egypt that date as far back as 600 B.C.E.

In Greek mythology, the gods shot dice for the universe: Poseidon won the oceans, Hades the underworld, and Zeus the heavens (they were Zeus’ dice).

As far as the origins of the modern game of craps are concerned, most writers cite one Sir William of Tyre as the inventor of a dice game called Hazard in 1125 C.E. during the Crusades. According to the record, Sir Billy and his knights were laying siege to a castle known as Hazard or Hazarth when the lord came up with the game.

However, we found that Sir William was a chronicler of the Crusades, not a campaigner, and doesn’t seem to have participated in any sieges (other than pillorying, in print, the Templars for their interference in the Siege of Ascalon in Egypt in 1153). In extensive reading about Sir William of Tyre outside the citations about craps, no allusions to the game of Hazard, or dice of any sort, could be found; likewise, no references to a siege of any castle called Hazard or Hazarth during the Crusades. Where this information came from originally is anyone’s guess. Wherever it did, many writers have since copied it verbatim. (If a reader can lead us to a citation validating the story, please do and we’ll amend this account accordingly).

Many other references place Hazard as dating from the 13th century and being of Middle Eastern origin; in Arabic, the word az-zahr means a die. The route of Hazard into Europe has been traced through Corsica and Spain, and thence up to France and England.

One source claims that the French changed the name of the game to Crapaud, which means toad, in reference to the stance of the players as they squatted over the dice. Other sources explain, less convincingly, that the roll we now call "snake eyes" was referred to as "crabs" in the lingo of Hazard; over time, "crabs" turned into "craps."

Hazard or craps was introduced to the New World by the French, either via Acadia, the French colony that encompassed eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and northern Maine, or New Orleans in the early 1800s. Southern Louisiana seems a more likely entry point, since the game spread up and out from the Mississippi River.

By the turn of the 20th century, gambling was in decline in the U.S. Major scandals involving lotteries and horse racing and the rise of Victorian morality in the Progressive era led to anti-gambling sentiments and state and federal laws banning games of chance. In addition, card sharps, mechanics, and crossroaders (cheaters all) were giving blackjack, poker, craps, and faro a bad name with the gambling public. By 1910, virtually all forms of gambling were prohibited in the U.S.

Of course, that just served to force the games underground, where cheating remained rampant.

Enter John H. Winn. Not much is known about this man, other than he was a dicemaker and bookie. Most accounts locate him in New York, but at least one source puts him in Philadelphia (Winn’s updated crap schematic has been referred to as the "Philadelphia layout").

However, everyone agrees that Winn is "the father of modern-day craps" due to his rules innovations. First, he went a long way toward solving the problem of loaded dice and sleight of hand with the "don’t" bet, meaning players could now bet against the shooter. If players suspected a shooter to be cheating with weighted dice, they could bet against him and negate his advantage.

In addition, Winn introduced the crap bank, wherein the players, instead of betting against one another, bet against the bank, or the house (Winn’s bank collected a 5% commission on each bet). Winn is also generally credited with inventing the big 6 and 8 side bets.

Dice aficionados immediately began creating their own "fading games" and adding further refinements. According to gambling writer John Scarne, by 1910, bank craps had overtaken faro as the most popular casino game in the U.S.

Some (fanciful) accounts credit or blame Winn’s 5% commission for the origin of the term "vigorish," claiming that it’s a bastardized form of the word vinegar, describing the bitterness of paying the commission. Others ascribe the origin to the word "vigor," as in how strong the game was for the house. However, most dictionaries agree that the term is the Yiddish slang for the Russian word vigresh, meaning profit.

As mentioned, references on John H. Winn are sparse. Ancestry.com lists his birth year as 1865, and his wife as Ellen Florence Weake. They apparently had one child, Henry Edward Winn, born in 1890, when John was 25 and Ellen was 23. According to John Scarne, Winn lived up till the early 1940s.

Though other details of his life remain obscure, Winn’s innovations, including the game’s layout, remain in place, more than 100 years later. His version of craps is one of the big six gambling games, accounting for untold riches for the casinos — and none for its inventor.