Of Dice and Games

Dice is one of the greatest inventions since the olden days when men and women traveled by foot, hunted and fished and lived with coarse clothing. Dice are small cubes usually made of bone or plastic, each side of the cube marked with dots numbering from one to six. The numbers on each side was so creatively made that when summing up the opposite sides it always equals seven.

Many have laid claims that dice was invented in their country. In the 5th century B.C., under the reign of King Atys, Herodotus, known as the "Father of History", claimed that it was the Lydians who invented dice. Sophocles on the other hand, made his own claim. He said that it was the Greeks who invented it. Wherever it originated, one thing is certain dice were invented long before the Trojans, the Lydian's, and the Greeks.

Ancient civilizations had shown that various forms of dice games have been played throughout history. In ancient Egypt writings and engravings have been discovered in tombs and monuments depicting people playing dice games. The Aztecs, Mayans and even the Eskimos have also shown that they had been involved in dice games. Instead of using the typical cube dice we are using today however, they used beaver teeth, pottery, shells, and even bones to play dice.

In the modern world, various games have been played using dice. Even once dice were used to determined one's future, one's freedom, one's luck, and etc., now it is used as a form of entertainment.

Dice are so essential in many games because it determines who should play his hand first in the game. Games such as craps, backgammon and poker dice use dice as one of its essential components. In casinos and gambling houses you can see various dice games that people have enjoyed for many years.

One of the most popular casino games today that uses dice is backgammon. Its rules are simple. It is quite amazing that such an interesting game has a very simple set of rules. The game is played by two players each having their own color of fifteen checkers. To keep the ball rolling each player throws a die. This determines who goes first in the game. If both players come up with the same number then they keep rolling the die until they both have different numerical values.

This game is as refreshing as it is interesting. Its origin dates back 5000 years ago when Romans were fighting the Greeks. It was in the 18th century when it obtained the name backgammon. It was not until the 1920s when the doubling cube was added.

Nowadays gambling games can be played online anytime, anywhere, all day and all night against players from all over the world.

As the year's turn into decades dice will still enchant many. It won't be long before someone invents another game which dice is used. Then it could also become a legend.