[ English ]

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

Dice and dice games goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps developed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French headed south and discovered safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was acquired from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. Most think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.