Be smart, play brilliant, and pickup craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard during a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.