Be smart, play cunning, and pickup craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the country. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he invented the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.