Carl and Martin Sandburg learned about dice and craps from other boys. When they came home with a pair of dice their father was unyielding in his determination that gambling devices should not be brought into their home. He didn't want his sons gambling and losing money. From his point of view gambling led to losing money. It was too precious to waste in that way.
 
Dice have a long history. It is believed dice developed in Southeast Asia. Archeological excavations have found dice dated between 2800 and 2500 BCE in Iran. Egyptians also played games with a form of dice. The Romans liked to gamble with dice. Dominoes and playing cards are descendants of dice. Galesburg has many bridge-playing groups among its senior citizens today.
 
Backgammon and "Monopoly" are games played in many homes with dice. They are a form of family recreation. The dice are used to randomize the moves individual players make during the game.
 
Dice can be made of plastic, ivory, bone or wood. The small cubes are usually 1.6 centimeters across. They are marked with a number of spots (pips) from one to six on the sides. There are right-handed and left-handed dice. If the numbers run counter- clockwise the dice are called right-handed. They are most commonly used in Western countries.
 
The pips on Western dice are usually smaller and located closer to the edges of the cube than dice used in Asian countries. Casino dice are designed to be as precise as possible. They are transparent or translucent with a stamped serial number to prevent substitutions. They are constructed to have the center of gravity of each die as close to the center as possible.
 
Since the 1960s polyhedral dice have been used to play war games, role playing games and trading card games. They have a variety of shapes and are read in different ways. The numbers on each die can be much greater than one to six. The sides of the dice can be in the shape of triangles and pentagons; some are almost spherical because of the many sides. These types of dice can approximate probability distributions of events.