Craps

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Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps developed from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s knights played Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French relocated south and found safety in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning toss of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Many acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Later, he created the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.