Be cunning, play brilliant, and master craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French moved down south and found refuge in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. A great many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the modern craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he invented the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.