Be cunning, play clever, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the castle’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the term for the bad luck throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the nation. Many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he developed the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.