Gambling is one of humanity’s oldest pastimes. Long before online casinos or Las Vegas, people were casting dice, drawing lots, and betting on games of chance — across Ancient China, Greece, Rome, and the early Americas. This guide traces the earliest forms of gambling in history, from the first playing cards to the dice games archaeologists keep digging up, and what they tell us about how deeply the urge to wager runs.
The short answer to “how old is gambling?” is: older than written records of it. Wherever historians look, they find people willing to risk something on an uncertain outcome.
Ancient China: Cards, Keno, and Tiles
China gave the world paper — and, fittingly, some of the earliest known card games. Many historians trace the first playing cards to China, with decorated card decks appearing by around the 9th century AD.
China is also linked to keno, a lottery-style numbers game whose roots are often placed roughly 2,000 years ago. Popular tradition even credits keno-style draws with helping fund major state projects in antiquity. Whatever the exact origin, lottery and tile games were woven into Chinese life centuries before they reached Europe.
Native American Games of Chance
Gambling in the Americas long predates European arrival. Archaeologists have found evidence of games of chance among Native American peoples going back centuries — including sites in the present-day US Southwest, such as caves in Utah, associated with stick-and-dice style games dating to roughly the 13th century.
A common format involved tossing marked sticks and betting on how they landed. In some communities these games carried social roles too, used to assign tasks or settle questions — gambling as ritual and decision-making, not just entertainment.
Ancient Greece and Rome
The Greeks gambled enthusiastically, and references to games of chance turn up in myth and literature alike — even the gods are described drawing lots to divide the world. Common Greek pastimes included:
- Heads or tails, originally played with shells before coins.
- Pitch-and-toss and coin games against a wall.
- “Odd or even” guessing games with small hidden objects.
- Dice, which classical legend attributes to the hero Palamedes.
Rome took dice and betting even further. Wagering on dice and on chariot races and gladiatorial contests was hugely popular — so much so that authorities periodically tried (and failed) to restrict it, an early echo of the gambling regulation debates that continue today.
Why Gambling Has Always Endured
Across every era, the pattern repeats: new materials and games appear, but the impulse to bet stays constant. Dice carved from bone became dice of ivory and then random number generators; lots drawn from a pot became national lotteries worth billions. The technology changes; the appeal does not.
That continuity is exactly why gambling history is worth knowing — today’s record jackpots sit at the end of a line that stretches back thousands of years.
Conclusion
The earliest forms of gambling — Chinese cards and keno, Native American stick games, and the dice of Greece and Rome — show that wagering is about as old as civilization itself. People have always been drawn to the thrill of an uncertain outcome, and they always found something to bet with. Modern casinos are just the latest chapter of a very long story.
For deeper background, see Britannica’s overview of the history of gambling and the broader history of playing cards.
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