[ English ]

Be cunning, play clever, and master craps the correct way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps developed from the ancient English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard amid a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is derived from the name of the bad luck 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. Many acknowledge 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 players could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he invented the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.