Craps Strategy

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

Be smart, play cunning, and discover how to play craps the right way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the English, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed 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, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he invented the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.