Be brilliant, play smart, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps come about from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French relocated south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is derived from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A great many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he established the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.