Be smart, play smart, and pickup craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps formed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French relocated south and found safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he invented the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.