Be clever, play smart, and master craps the right way!

Dice and dice games goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French relocated south and located refuge in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and throughout the country. A great many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.