Be brilliant, play smart, and become versed in craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen enjoyed Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.