Be cunning, play brilliant, and become versed in craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s knights played Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French relocated down south and discovered safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the nation. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.