Well, Whadya Know

People who ran illegal dice games in England three centuries
ago weren't taking any chance on going to jail. They employed
a man whose sole job was to swallow the dice in the event of
a raid. Maybe that's why they called playing dice "shooting
cr...," uh, never mind.

The ancient Greeks made dice from the shoulder blades of
sheep. Losers in crooked dice games might thus truly feel
that they had been fleeced.

[source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS by David Louis]