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

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps come about from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for sure the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French headed down south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and across the country. A great many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.