Be cunning, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French moved down south and found refuge in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.