Craps

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Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was gotten from the fortress’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. Many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. At another time, he created the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.