Craps Strategies

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

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

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Current craps formed from the old English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, however Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s soldiers gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French moved south and discovered refuge in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the boxes for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.