Gambling dates back at least to the Paleolithic period, before written history. In Mesopotamia the earliest six-sided dice date to about 3000 BCE. However, they were based on astragali dating back thousands of years earlier. In China, gambling houses were widespread in the first millennium BCE, and betting on fighting animals was common.

The first evidence of gambling according to Playcasinos.ca dates from as far back as 3,000 BC — a staggering 5,000-plus years ago. In ancient Mesopotamia, which roughly spanned modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey, there’s evidence of a barely surviving six-sided dice.

The exact date when gambling was invented is unclear. Historians aren’t exactly sure who invented gambling either. Based on the evidence, though, games of chance date back over 7,000 years. The Sumerians used sheep knucklebones as four-sided dice around 5000 BC. By 3000 BC, Egyptians began using the more-modern six-sided die.

Evidence of gambling practices has been discovered in several regions worldwide, such as Egypt, Greece, China, and Japan, with some dating as far back as 2000BC. Gambling dice are arguably the oldest implements and were probably invented in Ancient Mesopotamia around 3000BC. Sheep bones, especially the knucklebones, formed the base of the dice.

The earliest known gambling houses date back to Ancient Rome and China, where citizens would bet on various games of chance. In ancient Rome, gambling was seen as a way to pass the time, as well as to generate revenue for the government. In the 17th century, the first modern-style casinos began to appear in Italy.