Dice have been made use of for thousands of years (at least two thousand years and counting), there exists data that dates the usage of dice as far back as during the age of the Roman Empire.  Troops used the bones of pigs and sheep, shaped them into cubes and threw the bones in a game to amuse themselves while in camp; this is assumed to be the foundation of the expression “roll them bones”.

The initial use of dice is thought to be as an device in predicting future events thus helping people to come to a decision.  Over time the signs have developed into the numerical symbols we have today, and the purpose of dice to help predict the future has long passed.

With everything this old the history of how it developed is murky and numerous thoughts have been proposed over time.  A popular hypothesis has the game of craps evolving from a pastime played by Arabs since before the period of the Middle Ages called Azzahr.  Sometime later the game surfaced in France where it was called Hasard, it then crossed the English Channel around 1500 where it was given the English spelling of Hazard.  By the early 1700′s official rules for the game were established.

When the French made it across the Atlantic to settle in New France (Quebec and parts of Nova Scotia) they brought the game with them.  When the British defeated the French in the new world substantial numbers of French settlers exited from Nova Scotia and ended up in Louisiana where they made a new settlement.  When they moved to Louisiana they brought along the game of Hasard, however as the years passed the games name evolved into Creps or Crebs (this is the smallest denomination available in the game and is referred to as Crabes by the French and Crabs by the English).  The name Craps (derived from the Cajun Creps or Crebs) was in use in America English as early as the year 1843.

The popular game migrated west with the frontier, and today is played all over The U.S. and the rest of the planet.  There are two general varieties of craps played today “Street Craps” and “Bank Craps”.  Lately a new type of craps is becoming fashionable an online variety refered to as “Online Craps” .  Estimates place the number of dice participants in the United States at thirty  million each year .