Be clever, play smart, and master craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the English, the French moved south and located sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
