Today, the dice has become an integral part of many gambling games. Did you know that it has a very rich and varied history? Here is a brief history of the gambling dice, for your pleasure.

The dice is as old as civilization itself. Many ancient tribes are known to have used the dice as divination tools. Dice were also known to be used in ancient times for the purpose of predicting the future. The dice as we know it today was originally made from ankle bones of animals that had hooves. In fact, the Arabic word for knuckle bones and the word for dice are very strongly related to each other.

The Astragali, or sheep’s ankle bones, were used by the Greeks to fashion their dice. Bones were also known to be used by Romans to make their dice. The dotted faces of the cube shaped piece are features that can be easily identified in Roman dice.

Dice had become very popular in playing games and very soon ‘weighted dice’ came to be introduced. These dice were filled with lead to add to their weight and to control their rolling.

There was a dice makers’ guild in the Middle Ages that had strict guidelines which forbade the manufacturing of leaded or fraudulent dice. However, there is evidence that fraudulent dice were still being used at that time despite the strict rules.

Over the history of dice, it came to be made with many different materials. The various materials that were used to make dice include ivory, wood, animal teeth and horns, onyx, clay, nut shells, seeds, bronze, marble, amber, rock, precious metals like gold and silver, alabaster, agate among many others.

Today, the dice that is commonly used in casinos made of extruded cellulose acetate and are typically transparent