Be cunning, play smart, and become versed in craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard amid a siege 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 Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. A good many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he established the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.