T        here are many differences of opinion about time and place where Craps appeared. Richard Epstein theory tells that Craps came out of the game played during the Middle Ages called Hazard, and turned formal when rules where formulated by Montmort in the early seventeenth century.  It is quite difficult to find out where the name of this game came from. Some says that it developed from English word "crabs", some says that from the French Crapeaud, which means a toad. Even gambling historians have different opinions about that. Many scholars and self-professed experts take this subject as a viciously contended, which discussion of mayeven result in a fight!

        Other sources show that Craps developed even earlier, in the time of the Holy Roman Empire. Soldiers in camps called it “rolling the bones”, because they shave down pig's knuckles into the cube shape, and toss them onto their shields turned upside down. In general opinion Craps traveled to U.S. from Europe. There are two main types of Craps which survived to present days and can be noticed in the past. These are "Street Craps" and "Bank Craps". Nowadays another kind of Craps which becomes very popular are those played on the Internet – Online Craps. Geoffrey W. Dibben, who is gaming guru and gambling legend, dates appearing of Crabs before Middle Ages, when the Arabs played a game using little numbered cubes, called azzahr, which means "the die". After traveling across Mediterranean see to France the name of it turned to hasard, and after crossing the English Channel sometime before 1550 AD, it was renamed to English spelling - hazard.

        Crab was the name of lowest value in this game. The term was adopted by French and spelled it the French way – crabes. In the early seventeenth century the game traveled across the Atlantic ocean to eastern Canada, then called Acadia and being a French colony. After the French lost Acadia to England it was renamed to Nova Scotia and the French-speaking Acadians were evicted from their land. They traveled south and settled down in Louisiana, where they were, and still are, called Cajuns. They continue to play dice game, but instead of calling it hasard they called it simply “crebs” or “creps’, what came from their spelling of the French “crabes”. In 1843, the Cajun word was adopted to American English as “craps”. As there was same word which in slang term have a totally different meaning, people were careful at first, and didn’t want to use the word in many situation.