Be brilliant, play cunning, and learn how to play craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French moved south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and all over the nation. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Later, he created the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
