Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Modern craps formed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when driven away by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. A few think the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. Later, he established the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.