Every year, on December 4th, people across the United States celebrate National Dice Day. In the US, there are many games and activities that incorporate dice, providing entertainment for children and adults of all ages. This year, take time to celebrate dice yourself, be it enjoying a board game with friends or logging online to try a dice game at a top-rated casino. At OUSC, we decided to share a few fun facts about dice in honor of this holiday.
Seven Fun Facts About Dice
If you’re a gambling enthusiast, you know that apart from cards, dice are perhaps the most basic pieces used in gambling. Take a look at some of these fun facts about dice, you might just be surprised at what you learn.
1. The Origin of Dice
The origin of dice is uncertain in history. However, we do know that the item has been around for thousands of years. Unlike other customs that started in one place, dice-throwing appeared independently all across the populated world.
The oldest known dice were actually discovered at Burnt City, a site of an archaeological dig in Iran, found to part of a Backgammon set that was 5,000 years old!
2. Rollin’ Bones
Did you know that in the beginning, dice were originally made from the ankle bones of animals? Early civilizations used bones, hooves, and tusks from animals like sheep to create dice with the bone material carved down to construct the shape and size. Small circles were inscribed on the ankle bones to delineate the differing sides.
3. Dice Come in All Shapes and Sizes
While everyone has used a typical six-sided dice when playing craps at a casino or a board game like Yahtzee at home, there are also weird shaped dice that are used in other games. Unusual shapes used to create dice include an octahedron, pentagonal trapezohedron, dodecahedron, and an icosahedron. Oddly shaped dice are often used in popular board games such as Dungeons and Dragons.
4. The Dots Have A Name
This might come as a surprise, but the dots on the side of the dice planes have a name. The dots on each side of the dice are known as “pips”. On traditional dice, there are six sides with pips used to represent one, two, three, four, five, and six. Pips are usually colored black on white dice, and white on dice of other colors, although colored pips are also common.
5. Loaded Dice
In the gambling world or underground gambling, loaded dice are dice that have been weighted or loaded to cheat during gameplay. Whether players are simply throwing the dice and wagering with a group of friends or the loaded dice are illegally used at a casino, it allows the thrower to cheat. Several methods are used to load dice such as off-square faces and weights to lean the roll in the thrower’s favor.
6. Casino Dice Games
Several games found at land-based casinos use dice, with the most popular one being craps. Players that are familiar with this casino table game know that the many betting options are based on what appears when the dice are rolled. Additional dice games include Sic Bo and Bunco, among others.
7. Lucky Number Seven
For the traditional six-sided dice, opposite faces are arranged to always add up to seven. One and six, two and five, and three and four each make combinations of seven. This might explain why seven is the most common number when rolling two dice. Next time you’re looking to roll a seven, just know that the odds are in your favor.
