Be smart, play clever, and master craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s horsemen enjoyed Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A few acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.