The tiles were later constructed by gluing and pinning two sheets of ebony on either side of the bone tile. This prevented cheating by being able to see the pip value from the back of the tile in certain lights. It also served to produce nice contrasting white pips on black background by allowing the bone to show through holes in the ebony. The pin through the middle of the tile became known as the "spinner", for obvious reasons. Although tiles have not been constructed in this way for centuries, tradition has maintained the spinner which can still be found on many modern sets. Many players feel that it is still of benefit since it makes the tiles easier to shuffle and protects their faces.

Dominoes, as most of the Western world knows them, appear to be a Chinese invention, with the oldest sets dating from around 1120 A.D. They were apparently derived from cubic dice, which had been introduced into China from India some time in the dim and distant past. Each domino originally represented one of the twenty-one results of throwing two dice. One half of the tile is set with the pips from one die and the other half contains the pips from the second die. There are a total of thirty-two tiles, as certain dominoes are duplicated. The set is divided into two classes: military and civilian (the “civilian” tiles are the ones which have duplicates, while the “military” tiles are those which are unique.)

Although domino tiles are clearly of Chinese inheritance, sometime in the early 18th century dominoes made their first European appearance in Italy, where they were played in the courts of Venice and Naples. The game arrived in Britain in the late 18th Century from France (possibly via French prisoners of war) and quickly seems to have become popular in inns and taverns at the time. It’s surprising to some that it took this long for the game to make this trip, since the Silk Road would have been open for quite some time before this date; however, there is debate over whether the game played by Europeans was brought by the Chinese to Europe in the eighteenth century or, in fact, was invented independently.

The game changed somewhat in the translation from Chinese to European culture. European sets are shorter than Chinese ones and contain neither class distinctions nor the duplicates that went with them. Instead, European sets contain seven additional dominos with six of these representing the values that result from throwing a single die with the other half of the tile left blank. Curiously, there is also a seventh tile with both halves left blank (making a total of twenty-eight tiles). Perhaps this was done for symmetry's sake so that each of the resulting suits would contain seven tiles. This is the standard or "double-six" set and, as in China, various games can be played with it. (We will explore some of the games played with basic Chinese dominoes later.) Double-twelve sets (91 tiles) are popular in America and Double-nine sets (55 tiles) also exist.

Interestingly, American Eskimos also play a game using tiles that are very similar to Dominoes. This makes me wonder if the game doesn't date from before the last eastern migration across the land bridge to the Americas. Is there an anthropologist in the house?

Over time, Chinese dominoes also evolved into the tile set used to play Mah Jong, a game which swept across the United States in the 1920s.

Many of the games we associate with dominoes are quite modern. The block games seem to be the oldest of the European games. While Muggins, also known as Five Up, dates from the early 20th century. I suspect that some domino games, such as Reiner Müller's solitaire games, date from the last few decades.