Be smart, play brilliant, and learn how to play craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen wagered on Hazard through a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.