Be clever, play smart, and master craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the birth of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s paladins wagered on Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is gotten from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and across the country. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He added the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he established the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
