[ English ]

Be cunning, play cunning, and become versed in craps the proper way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French relocated down south and found refuge in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and all over the nation. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he designed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.