Stop Drawing Dice Incorrectly!

This is a schematic for a perfectly crafted die. The orientation of all pipsA pip is a small mark indicating quantity — a dot on dice and a suit symbol on numbered playing cards. conforms with the standards used by most casinos.

Casino Dice Schematics: Why Do So Many Get This Wrong?

Look, I love dice. You love dice. If you're here reading this, you probably really love dice — or at least pretend to when you sidle up to a craps table and toss around phrases like “Yo-leven” and “horn-high ace-deuce.” But there's one thing that drives me absolutely nuts…

Bad dice drawings.

I'm not talking about casual mistakes from a toddler sketching a six-sided cube. I'm talking about full-grown adults — dice enthusiasts, even casino artists! — who somehow can't follow the very basic, universal standards that even the junky plastic dice in a Monopoly box respect.

So let's set the record straight. If you're going to draw dice, design dice, photograph dice, or plaster them all over your gambling-themed products, you should at least know what actual casino dice are supposed to look like.

The Sacred Rules of Casino Dice

Here's what you need to understand:

Real casino dice aren't just random cubes with dots slapped on them. They're precision instruments, machined to perfection, and they always follow these basic principles:

🎲 1️⃣ The opposite sides always add up to 7

This is not a suggestion. It's math.

should be opposite of .

should be opposite of .

should be opposite of .

Simple and universal. If your drawing has 3 and 4 on adjacent sides, congratulations, you've created some kind of cursed object that belongs in a dollar store.

The left die has a 2 next to a 5. The right die has a 3 next to a 4. In both cases, the number should be on the opposite face of its complement.

🎲 2️⃣ The 1, 2, and 3 all meet at a common corner

On a standard die, there's always one corner where you can see the , , and faces touching. It's the easiest way to orient yourself and the surest way to spot a malformed imposter.

ALSO, the and the should form a "V" when you look at the two shared faces with the on top. When oriented like this, the should be on the left, and the should be on the right.

This means that the corner that the three faces share does not contain a pip. I learned this when I was 8 years old and I noticed that if you spin a die with that corner on top, the corner will be free of any pip.

On dice, a "pip" refers to one of the small dots on a face of the die that represent numbers from 1 to 6.

Just look at the Game Die Emoji! They actually got this one right (if you ignore the color of the 1 Pip).

🎲

🎲 3️⃣ The 6 face has a specific orientation

It goes "up and down," meaning if you're looking at a properly aligned die, the rows of three dots on the face run vertically, with the and faces adjacent to the opening edges.

Here, the die on the left has a 6 that correctly opens up to the 4. The die on the right has a 6 that correctly opens up to the 3.

The Physical Standards of Casino Dice

Beyond just how they look, casino dice are designed with rigorous precision:

💎 Translucency

They're clear, so you can see through them. Why? To prevent tampering or loading. If someone gives you opaque dice at the craps table, you should hand them back and then immediately sanitize your hands.

You can see there is nothing fishy going on inside these five casino dice!

⚖️ Flat, painted dots (not indented)

Those classic little indented pips? Forget them — that's for children's board games. Casino dice have perfectly flat surfaces with painted dots. Why? Because digging holes for the dots would mess with the balance. The last thing you want is the 1 face landing on the felt more than it should just because some designer didn't understand basic physics.

You can see that the dots in these game dice are carved out of the material. This results in dice that are not "true" and it introduces possible bias towards the larger numbers.

📐 Sharp, square edges

Casino dice have razor-sharp corners, not the rounded edges of your friendly neighborhood Yahtzee set. You can (and should!) be able to spin one like a miniature fidget spinner by pinching two opposite corners.

Can you spot what's wrong? Can you identify the Kosher dice?

So, how's your eye for valid dice? Care to test your skills? Here's a mixture of correctly and incorrectly illustrated dice. Can you tell which ones are invalid and why?

Die 1: 1/2/5

Hopefully you see that the 2 and the 5 add up to 7, which means that they should be on opposite faces, not next to each other. This die is INVALID.

Die 2: 6/4/3

Hopefully you see that the 4 and the 3 add up to 7, which means that they should be on opposite faces, not next to each other. This die is INVALID.

Die 3: 6/5/3

Nothing wrong with this one! It's perfectly valid! The 6 opens up to the 3 here.

Die 4: 6/4/5

Here, the 6 opens up to the 5. The 6 should only open up to the 4 or the 3. This die is INVALID.

Die 5: 1/2/3

The corner shared with the 1, 2, and 3 has the 2 and 3 forming a "V" with the joining corner touching the 1. This is INVALID. The shared 1/2/3 corner should NOT have a single spot in the corner.

Die 6: 1/2/3

Here's the CORRECT way the shared corner is formed by the 1, 2, and 3. There is NO dot in the shared corner. This die is VALID.

Why This Matters

Whenever I see malformed dice in artwork, marketing, or even from self-proclaimed dice “aficionados,” I absolutely cringe.

How can you claim to love dice and not know what real dice are supposed to look like?!

Even the factory-made dice that come bundled with Monopoly respect these rules! It's frankly embarrassing when so-called "craps enthusiasts" post artwork featuring impossible dice that no real casino would ever allow on a table.

And now that you know these rules — well, you can't unsee it either.

Every off-kilter dot, every backwards face, every rounded corner you spot in an ad or design from this day forward… it'll jump out at you. And you're welcome.

So let's all do better, shall we? Respect the dice. Love the dice. Draw them correctly.