Be clever, play cunning, and pickup craps the proper way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about 100 years old. Current craps come about from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s paladins played Hazard during a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved down south and located sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A few think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Later, he established the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.