Be cunning, play clever, and pickup craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the beginnings 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 believed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French relocated south and found refuge in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and all over the nation. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
