Be brilliant, play smart, and become versed in craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps developed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the British, the French headed down south and found sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
