Be smart, play clever, and learn how to play craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard amid a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French relocated down south and found refuge in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he developed the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.