Craps Information

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps developed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard amid a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed south and found sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and throughout the country. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. Later, he developed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.