Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the British, the French headed south and located refuge in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the country. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.