The dice are the oldest gambling tools. According to Scarne’s research, the dice and the games associated with them can be found all over the ancient world. Roman Emperors Augustin, Nero and Caligula were devoted dice players. They even tried to cheat at the game. Modern looking cubical die was found in Egypt and it was dated at 600 B.C. Indian ancient epic "Mahabharata" tells the stories about the warriors throwing the dice and loosing fortunes. Koreans were also big fans of the dice in the early days. American Indians used four-sided knucklebones to create their dice games. The fact that Arabic language uses the same word for a knucklebone and a die means that the dice were popular in Arab world for a longer time that anybody can remember.

You win after the first roll if the shooter rolls a seven before making his point. However, you lose if the shooter successfully make his point. For example, if the shooter's "Come Out" roll is an eight, the shooter continues to roll until an eight or seven is rolled. A roll of eight loses, a roll of seven wins. All intervening rolls are irrelevant to the "don't pass line" bet.Once either the seven or point has been rolled, the next roll becomes the new "Come Out" roll.

The inside walls of the table are covered with a serrated egg-carton like foam, designed to make the dice bounce around to assure randomness. Each throw of the dice is called a "roll". Players take turn rolling the dice, clockwise around the table, and the player rolling at any given time is called the "shooter". When a new shooter is given the dice, his or her first roll is called the ""Come Out"" roll. This begins a new series of rolls by that shooter and lasts for as long as that shooter continues to make winning rolls.