Rules About Backgammon Dice Rolling

Hedge · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 18

Hello fellow backgammon players. Recently, I played a live game against an opponent who did the following: He placed the dice in between his fingers with the numbers showing a double and then dropped the dice from a bit of a height. I don’t know whether it was just pure luck, but the dice fell on the same double combination and he was able to make the move that he wanted. Does this constitute cheating? What do the backgammon rulebooks say about throwing dice?

Jade · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 27

Generally, the rules about throwing dice say that for a dice roll to be legal, it has to be shaken vigorously in a dice cup and then thrown out from a reasonable height onto the backgammon board so that they bounce freely. There are backgammon variants that allow the dice to be shaken in the hand and then thrown in the same manner, but these are not the norm and most live backgammon games require some sort of cup (if not an official backgammon throwing cup).

Dice dropped from a reasonable height will probably fall quite randomly, and your opponent was just plain lucky this time around. However, any attempt to manipulate the dice is considered cheating and this is what he did. I have been witness to smart backgammon cheats who have managed to manipulate the dice by throwing them from their hands, even though it looked obvious that the were shaken beforehand. It takes practice but unfortunately it is possible. For that reason, I would never agree to undertake a game that is not played with dice cups.