Be smart, play clever, and become versed in craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about 100 years old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French headed south and found safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.