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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen wagered on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.