Be clever, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he created the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.