Be cunning, play smart, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers played 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 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French headed down south and found safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and all over the nation. A good many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.