Be brilliant, play smart, and become versed in craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard amid a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French headed down south and discovered safety in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.