Be clever, play smart, and learn how to play craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed 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 migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he developed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.