Be clever, play clever, and discover how to play craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when banished by the British, the French moved down south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
