Be brilliant, play clever, and learn how to play craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard through a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French relocated south and found sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the nation. A good many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he invented the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.