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Be smart, play clever, and pickup craps the correct way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.