Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the right way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French headed down south and found safety in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.