Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard during a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French headed down south and discovered refuge in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. Most acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he established the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.