Craps Strategies

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

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is just about 100 years old. Modern craps come about from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the birth of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.

Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the country. Most acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to lose. Later, he created the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.