“ Fashionable society followed the lead of its emperors, and, in spite of the severity of the laws, fortunes were squandered at the dicing table. Horace derided the youth of the period, who wasted his time amid the dangers of dicing instead of taming his charger and giving himself up to the hardships of the chase. Throwing dice for money was the cause of many special laws in Rome, according to one of which no suit could be brought by a person who allowed gambling in his house, even if he had been cheated or assaulted. ”

“ The most popular form of pure gambling with dice at the present day, particularly with the lower classes in America, is Craps, or Crap-Shooting, a simple form of Hazard, of French origin. Two dice are used. Each player puts up a stake and the first caster may cover any or all of the bets. He then shoots, i.e. throws the dice from his open hand upon the table. If the sum of the dice is 7 or 11 the throw is a nick, or natural, and the caster wins all stakes. If the throw is either 2, 3 or 12 it is a crap, and the caster loses all. ”

“ The antiquary Thomas Hyde, in his Syntagma, records his opinion that the game of “odd or even,” played with pebbles, is nearly coeval with the creation of man. It is almost impossible to trace clearly the development of dice as distinguished from knucklebones, on account of the confusing of the two games by the ancient writers. ”