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Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French relocated south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A good many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he invented the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.