Be clever, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when banished by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. A few acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.