Be smart, play cunning, and master craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard through a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. A good many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
