Be smart, play cunning, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps developed from the old English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French moved down south and discovered safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the term for the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the nation. Many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the modern craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
