Be brilliant, play brilliant, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the old English game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French relocated down south and found safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. Most acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.