The Hebrew word for “lot” means pebble or small stone. In the Bible under the Law of Moses, “lots” were sometimes cast to ascertain the will of God. Also, accounts of gambling were found in the Great Pyramid of Cheops dating back to around 3000 BC. I make this statement based upon reports of archaeologists uncovering games of chance in Mesopotamia which were over 5000 years old and dice which were thought to be even more ancient. It does seem to be a good bet that dice are the oldest gambling implements known to man. One thing everyone agrees upon is that some form of the game has been around for thousands of years.Ĭould dice games have been birthed several thousand years BC when more primitive cultures rolled bones to divine the will of the gods? Could that be the reason we still use the slang term “bones” even today when referring to dice? It seems that the proposed origin of craps is only limited by imagination and differs based upon whom you consult.
