Be clever, play brilliant, and become versed in craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps evolved from the old English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
