Be smart, play smart, and discover how to play craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved down south and found refuge in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled 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 bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.