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

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Modern craps formed from the old Anglo game called Hazard. No one knows for certain the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when displaced by the British, the French moved south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their favored game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and across the country. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn designed the modern craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he designed the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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