Craps Tips

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

Be cunning, play brilliant, and master craps the proper way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the old Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is said to have been created by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard during a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when banished by the British, the French moved south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of 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 title to craps, which was derived from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn developed the current craps setup. He added the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he developed the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.