Be smart, play smart, and master craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Modern craps come about from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French relocated down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
