History of gambling in India roots back to some 4000 years ago. Indian culture shows evidence of gambling right from the beginning of Indian civilization. The famous story of different members of a royal family competed for the throne by the roll of a dice, in the great Indian epic Mahabharata dating to 1500 B.C. is well known. One of the competitors lost all his royal possessions including his wife.
Gambling history of India shows how Indians used the nuts of the “vibhitaka” tree for dice games. As these nuts have 5 more or less flat sides, it was easy to use them as dice. Later on, the vibhitaka dice were replaced by astragali and cubical dice. Besides dice games, Indians were also known to be very fond of gambling that involved animals – particularly cock and ram fights.
India’s gambling history reveals how gamblers t those times gambled like and played like there was no tomorrow at gambling houses. However, those houses were supervised by an official to assure orderly gambling and collect from the players a percentage for the King.
Even though betting is outlawed in India, the gambling casinos of today have come a long way since their early beginnings.