Be clever, play brilliant, and master craps the ideal way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French moved down south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and all over the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he designed the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
