Oldest dice games which are still popular in online casinos

Games of chance involving dice have been around for millennia, and so it’s incredible to think that they were not only a hit with our ancient ancestors, but also entertaining enough to still click with modern audiences.

Of course not all dice games have stood the test of time, so let’s look at just a few of the classics that were invented long ago and yet manage to make a splash at online casinos in the 21st century.

Craps

Casinos around the world, both online and land-based, feature craps as a staple table game that attracts plenty of punters thanks to its straightforward rules and the potential for big payouts.

This is very much an American invention, although it only got going in the 18th century, and was originally called ‘crabs’ rather than craps.

Its origins are actually much older than this, as it was adapted from hazard, a dice game which is mentioned as early as the 1300s in the works of English wordsmith Geoffrey Chaucer.

Any modern-day gambling fan can read the definitive guide on how to play craps and quickly get up to speed with this enduringly popular pastime, all while knowing that they are following in the footsteps of everyone from the British nobility to American Civil War soldiers.

Backgammon

Arguably even older than craps in terms of its historical roots, backgammon is associated with games that originated in around 3000 BCE, and shares similarities with the likes of chess when it comes to its origins.

Where it differs from chess, of course, is that the use of dice in the game introduces an element of randomness which keeps things interesting. There is still plenty of strategy involved, yet the rolling of dice means that things never get stale.

There is a healthy online backgammon scene today, and it is also a dice game that has drawn the attention of lots of scientific researchers over the years, resulting in the development of software that can reliably outclass any flesh-and-blood players time and again.

Yahtzee

Introduced in its current form in the mid-1950s, Yahtzee is unsurprisingly not the first dice game to adapt elements of more historic games of chance, including card games like poker.

In fact, it even shares a name that’s nearly identical to that of Scandinavian dice game stalwart Yatzy, while building its rules on the foundations of poker dice.

Of course all it takes is one person to standardize the rules, slap some branding on a game and sell it to the world, and that’s exactly what happened with Yahtzee.

Incredibly, around 50 million versions of Yahtzee are snapped up worldwide on an annual basis, with current owner Hasbro no doubt using its marketing clout and presence in virtually every country to perpetuate its success.

In an online casino context, there is a popular slot game which is officially licensed from the Yahtzee brand, and bases its symbols and gameplay on it. The element of randomness here is very prevalent, which also makes Yahtzee incredibly simple to pick up and play, hence why it is perfect for web-based gambling sites.

Sic bo

While it might not be quite as big a hit in Western casinos, Sic bo is a huge game in Asia. And one of the most interesting things about it is that the name’s literal translation is ‘precious dice’, which goes a long way to explaining what the game involves.

Just three dice are needed to play, and the aim is to predict how the dice will fall when rolled and place a bet on this outcome with the hope of being rewarded.

China is widely touted to be the home of the oldest dice games around, and while it’s difficult to know exactly when Sic bo originated, it is definitely an ancient form of gambling.

For the past 100 years or so, Sic bo has also been played in the US and Europe, with land-based casinos adopting it and the online casino revolution resulting in digital adaptations emerging as well.

It seems inevitable that humans will keep playing with dice, whether physical or virtual, for as long as our species survives.

Early soothsayers used them to try to map out the future, and from the carved animal bones of prehistory to the transparent plastic dice of the 20th century and even the online representations of today, it is their unpredictability and randomness that has kept us hooked with every roll.