Be clever, play smart, and discover how to play craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps formed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French relocated south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he invented the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.