Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps come about from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French moved south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. A great many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.