Be clever, play cunning, and master craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins wagered on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French headed down south and found refuge in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. Many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.