Be cunning, play smart, and become versed in craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French relocated down south and found safety in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the country. Many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.