Be clever, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen enjoyed Hazard amid a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is acquired from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. Many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he invented the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.