Be clever, play smart, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French moved down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for 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 country. A great many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
