Games like craps

Craps is a dice game in which the players make wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or a bank (playing "casino craps", also known as "table craps", or often just "craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street craps" can be played in informal settings. While shooting craps, players may use slang terminology to place bets and actions.

Craps developed in the United States from a simplification of the western European game of hazard. The origins of hazard are obscure and may date to the Crusades. Hazard was brought from London to New Orleans about 1807 by the returning Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, the young gambler and scion of a family of wealthy colonial Louisiana landowners. Although in hazard the dice shooter may choose any number from five to nine to be the main number, de Marigny simplified the game such that the main number is always seven, the optimal choice by knowledgeable hazard players. Both hazard and its new offshoot were unfamiliar and rejected by Americans of his social class, leading de Marigny to introduce his novelty to the local underclass. Fieldhands taught their friends, and deckhands carried the new game up the Mississippi River. Celebrating the popular success of his novelty, de Marigny gave the name craps to a street in his New Orleans real estate development.