[ English ]

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

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the birth of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard amid a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the country. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He added the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he developed the boxes for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.