Be smart, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. Later, he established the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.