Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the ideal way!

Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the old English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he established the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.