Be brilliant, play cunning, and discover how to play craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins wagered on Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he established the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.