Be cunning, play cunning, and become versed in craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps come about from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the nation. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he established the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
