Craps Strategies

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

Be clever, play clever, and pickup craps the right way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is presumed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard through a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the citadel’s name.

Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French moved south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi scows and throughout the nation. A few consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he designed the boxes for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.