The Craps Dice

In this section we’ll explore a little more about craps dice, the actual dice used in the game of craps. Of course, there’s not much difference between craps dice and regular dice, except that they are larger in size than most dice, and they are also translucent to minimize the threat of having them switched for crooked dice. First, we’ll take a look at the history of dice in general, and then we can explore some other aspects of the dice: crooked dice and dice control.

History of Dice in General

Dice are the oldest gaming implements known to humankind. Although dice have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 2000 BC, the history of dice extends even further than this, back into the very beginnings of known human history. Indeed, dice have been found dating back to 6000 BC in some archeological excavations.

The interesting thing is, the history of dice is by no means a history of traveling from one place another, spreading over the world gradually. In fact, dice were developed seemingly independently by many ancient cultures throughout the world, who never had contact with one another.

In ancient times, throwing dice was not just considered to be dependant upon luck, the outcome was actually believed to be the result of decisions by the gods themselves. Therefore, dice were often used as a way of dividing inheritances and land, choosing rulers and predicting the future. In ancient Rome the goddess Fortuna, daughter of Zeus, was believed to determine the outcome of a throw. The modern day name for Fortuna, of course, is Lady Luck.

Before the standard cubical dice we use today became common, people used anything from fruit stones to sea shells to get random results for various games. Animal bones were the next step in the evolution of dice. The ancient Greeks and Romans used sheep anklebones and later developed them into the recognizable cubical spotted dice. The Arab word for knucklebones is, in fact, the same word they use for dice. Even today playing dice is known as rolling the bones.

Although dice have been around almost as long as civilization itself, dice reached their peak popularity only in the past few decades as the vital component of countless commercial board games. Electronic dice are a common thing, in online casinos or in electronic board games. Physical dice themselves may someday see a huge decline in popularity with the raise of computers that can generate random numbers, but some dice games are sure to stay. There’s nothing like rolling the real bones in a game of craps.

Crooked Dice

With so much money riding on the simple roll of a couple of dice at the craps table, it’s not surprising that some people try to cheat the system by introducing crooked dice. Capped, loaded, floaters, bevels or suction dice, crooked dice come in many forms, and they have been around ever since money could be made on the roll of a die…

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Dice Control?

Is the roll of a die completely random? Some people will tell you that it is not. In fact, there are people who devote much of their time to practicing what is known as dice setting, or dice control, in order to gain an edge on the casinos while playing craps. As the names may suggest, dice setting involves both setting the dice before you toss them, and learning to control that throw in such a way that sevens come up less often and other numbers come up more frequently…

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