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

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French moved down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A great many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he developed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.