Be clever, play clever, and become versed in craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French relocated south and discovered sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.