Be cunning, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French relocated south and discovered sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was gotten from the term for the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the nation. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he invented the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
