Craps

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s knights gambled on Hazard during a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French relocated down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and across the nation. A good many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he created the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.