Be brilliant, play brilliant, and become versed in craps the correct way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about one hundred years old. Modern craps formed from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen gambled on Hazard during a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French relocated down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.