Gambling and sport

Gambling is nearly as old as civilization itself. Mesopotamians used knucklebones as four-sided dice as long ago as 6000 BC, and archaeologists have found Mesopotamian six-sided dice with pips dating from 3000 BC. The Chinese invented playing cards some 1,500 years before the advent of the modern printing press, and public lotteries to raise money for civic improvements date from the 15th century.