Craps

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

Be clever, play clever, and learn how to play craps the right way!

Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the 12th Century Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard amid a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the castle’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French relocated south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is gotten from the term for the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A great many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he created the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.