Craps has a long and fascinating history.

Craps is considered to be a descendant of an offspring game ‘Hazard’. They think Hazard was invented during the crusades and it father was Sir William of Tyre. The crusaders spent their time playing Hazarth or Asart while sieging a castle in 1125 AD. The name “Hazard” is supposed to be a misrepresentation of the castle’s name. But on the other hand the Encyclopaedia Britannica asserts that the name originated from the Arabic words ‘azzah’ or ‘al zar’ meaning “the dice”. Hence there is supposition that the game is Arabic in origin.

No matter who invented it, Hazard was a very popular game in England. Geoffrey Chaucer, famous English author, mentions it in his Canterbury Tales and the English played it for centuries. In 17th century rich gambling houses in England offered Hazard to its players and the noblemen lost fortunes playing it.

Then the French started to play Hazard and they are said to change its name to Craps. They corrupted the name using the Hazard term meaning a losing throw of 2 that was called crabs. But this information is not confirmed and the other theory says that it is American in origin.

Some assert that namely the French brought the game to North America whereas others believe the British did it.

In America Craps became the game that we know nowadays. The British took Hazard to the south. That is why often the invention of Craps is attributed to the African Americans at the beginning of the 19th century. Crapshooting in American slang is African Dominoes. Some say the name Craps originates from the term with which the French are usually called - Johnny Crapaud (Crap is the French word for toad, a nickname given to the French for eating amphibians).

In the 19 century the game spread along the Mississippi and then all throughout all the US till John H Winn, a dice maker, devised the game more in result of which players could make a bet with or against the shooter. John H Winn is considered to be the father of modern Craps and just his game became the modern Bank Craps with all the layouts and tables.

Nowadays Craps is the largest gambling game in the world history concerning money wagered.