Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French relocated south and located sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he invented the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.