[ English ]

Be clever, play clever, and become versed in craps the correct way!

Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps formed from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s believed that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the English, the French headed south and located sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.