Be brilliant, play clever, and pickup craps the right way!
Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French relocated south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A good many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he invented the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
