Be smart, play clever, and discover how to play craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps come about from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard amid a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French relocated down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the losing toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
