Be clever, play brilliant, and learn how to play craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.