Be clever, play clever, and discover how to play craps the correct way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although 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 horsemen wagered on Hazard during a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn assembled the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.