Craps developed in the United States from a simplification of the western European game of Hazard, also spelled Hazzard[1] or Hasard.

[5]: 7–8  Hazard allows the dice shooter to choose any number from five to nine as their "main" number;[6]: 168  in a pamphlet published in 1933,[7] Edward Tinker claimed that Marigny simplified the game by making the main always seven,[5] which is the mathematically optimal choice, i.e., the choice with the lowest disadvantage for the shooter.

[3]: 34–35  Instead, John Scarne credits anonymous Black American inventors with simplifying and streamlining Hazard, increasing the pace of the game and adding a variety of wagers.

[3]: 39 Regardless of who deserves credit for simplifying Hazard, the game initially was called Pass from the French word pas (meaning "pace" or "step"), and was popularized by the underclass starting in the early 19th century.

If the main is seven, then the two-dice sum of twelve is added to the crabs as a losing number on the first dice roll.

[12] Craps exploded in popularity during World War II,[12] which brought most young American men of every social class into the military.

Their military memories led to craps becoming the dominant casino game in postwar Las Vegas and the Caribbean.

In smaller casinos or at quiet times of day, one or more of these employees may be missing, and have their job covered by another, or cause player capacity to be reduced.

There are no attendants, and so the progress of the game, fairness of the throws, and the way that the payouts are made for winning bets are self-policed by the players.

Viewed another way: The expected value of all bets is usually negative, such that the average player will always lose money.

The place bets on the 6 & 8 should be made in units of $6, (on a $5 minimum table), in order to receive the correct exact payout of $6 paying $7.

Most casinos usually charge only $1 for a $25 green-chip bet (4% commission), or $2 for $50 (two green chips), reducing the house advantage a bit more.

[3]: 118  These wagers are usually avoided by experienced craps players since they create a large house edge by paying even money (1:1) while the true odds are 6:5; experienced players realize the house edge would be reduced by instead making place bets on the 6 or the 8, since those pay more (7:6) and are closer to the true odds.

Pass line and come bets are always working meaning the chips are in play and the player is therefore wagering live money.

The Pass/Don't Pass line, Come/Don't Come line, place 6, place 8, buy 4 and buy 10 (only under the casino rules where commission is charged only on wins) have the lowest house edge in the casino, and all other bets will, on average, lose money between three and twelve times faster because of the difference in house edges.

[25][26] Dice are still considered "in play" if they land on players' bets on the table, the dealer's working stacks, on the marker puck, or with one die resting on top of the other.

This rule is enforced in order to allow the casino to easily monitor and record all transfers via overhead surveillance cameras, and to reduce the opportunity for cheating via sleight-of-hand.

Such a rule reduces the potential for misunderstanding in loud environments, as well as disputes over the amount that the player intended to bet after the outcome has been decided.

When allowed, they are usually made when a player wishes to bet at the last second, immediately before the dice are thrown, to avoid the risk of obstructing the roll.

[25][26] Craps is among the most social and most superstitious of all gambling games, which leads to an enormous variety of informal rules of etiquette that players may be expected to follow.

Most prominently, it is universally considered bad luck to say the word "seven" (after the "come-out", a roll of 7 is a loss for "pass" bets).

The dice are usually required to hit the back wall of the table, which is normally faced with a jagged angular texture such as pyramids, making controlled spins more difficult.

In Bank Craps, the dice are thrown over a wire or a string that is normally stretched a few inches from the table's surface.

[citation needed] In a similar variation, cards representing dice are dealt directly from a continuous shuffling machine (CSM).

[citation needed] Using a counting system allows the player to attain a similar return at lower variance.

They are numbered such that they can never throw a pair, and that the blue one will show a higher value than the red one exactly half the time.

Due to the random nature of the game, in popular culture a "crapshoot" is often used to describe an action with an unpredictable outcome.

[37] The 1950 Broadway musical Guys and Dolls features a major plot point revolving around a floating craps game.

In the 1950s and 1960s The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas had a craps table that floated in the swimming pool, as a joke reference to the notoriety of the term.

Likely the first known Golden Arm was Oahu native Stanley Fujitake, who rolled 118 times without sevening out in 3 hours and 6 minutes at the California Hotel and Casino on May 28, 1989.