Be smart, play smart, and master craps the right way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the birth of the game, but Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn created the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he designed the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.