Dice have been used for thousands of years (at least two thousand years and counting), there exists evidence that dates the usage of dice as far back as during the time of the Roman Empire.  Soldiers used the bones of pigs and sheep, formed them into cubes and tossed the bones in a contest to amuse themselves while in camp; this is assumed to be the source of the expression “roll them bones”.

Originally it is believed that dice were used as an aid in fortune telling to assist in making a decision.  Over the years, in part because of dice no longer being employed to fortune tell, the symbols on them have changed from their initial symbols to those we observe on today’s dice.

With everything this ancient the record of the way it changed is unclear and several theories have been proposed over time.  A widely held hypothesis has the game of craps originating in a pastime played by Arabs prior to the period of the Middle Ages referred to as Azzahr.  After some time the game appeared in France where it was called Hasard, it appeared across the English Channel around 1500 where it was given the English spelling governing Hazard.  Formal regulations for Hazard had been established by the early 1700’s.

When the French made it across the Atlantic to settle in New France (Quebec and parts of Nova Scotia) they delivered the game with them.  When the British defeated the French in the new world significant numbers of French settlers left Nova Scotia and migrated to Louisiana where they set up a new community.  They brought along the game of Hasard, but over the years started calling the game Crebs or Creps, their way of spelling the French word Crabes (the smallest possible value possible in the game was referred to as Crabs by the English and Crabes by the French).  The Cajun name was distorted in American English to Craps before the year 1843.

The popular game moved west along with the frontier, and nowadays is enjoyed all over The United States as well as in the rest of the planet.  There are 2 general types of craps enjoyed at present “Street Craps” and “Bank Craps”.  Recently another type of craps is becoming fashionable an online variety known as “Online Craps” .  It is estimated that at least thirty  million Americans play dice every year.