Be clever, play brilliant, and pickup craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps formed from the old English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French relocated south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the term for the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he developed the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.