Be brilliant, play cunning, and master craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when driven away by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps layout. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
