Be smart, play brilliant, and pickup craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French relocated down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. A few consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Later, he invented the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.