Be clever, play cunning, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French headed south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is gotten from the name of the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. Many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps layout. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
