Be smart, play smart, and discover how to play craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps developed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French headed south and located safety in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he established the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.