Be cunning, play smart, and master craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about 100 years old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
