Be smart, play cunning, and become versed in craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard through a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French relocated down south and discovered safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and all over the nation. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he created the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.