Be cunning, play smart, and learn how to play craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the old Anglo game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French relocated down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the modern craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.