Be cunning, play clever, and master craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps developed from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French moved down south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the country. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he created the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.