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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen wagered on Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.