Be clever, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the birth of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he invented the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
