Be smart, play clever, and become versed in craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps formed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s horsemen enjoyed Hazard amid a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when exiled by the English, the French headed down south and located refuge in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.