Be clever, play clever, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is derived from the term for the bad luck throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. Later, he established the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
