In ancient times, most dice were made of bones. This is the origination of the phrase, “rolling the bones.” Other materials used to make dice included marble, onyx, agate, bronze, alabaster and porcelain. Primitive tribes around the world, from the American Indian to Africans and South Sea Islanders, have gambled with dice made of whatever materials were available, including seashells, seeds, deer horn, pottery and animal teeth.

Just about as long as dice have existed, so have people who have tried to cheat using “loaded dice.” A loaded die is one that has been intentionally altered so that it lands most often with a certain side facing up. Dice can be loaded in many ways, especially if they aren’t transparent. Some simply have weights added to one side. Some, called “tappers,” have a cavity in the center of the tube that holds a drop of mercury. When the die is tapped on the table, the mercury moves through a little tube to another cavity at the side of the cube.

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