Kitsune bakuchi

Kitsune bakuchi, literally fox gambling, is a traditional Japanese dice game in which a player rolls three dice at once and wins only if all three show the same number, a result known as a triple. A successful triple pays out four times the amount wagered, a payout that, given the true odds of rolling a matching triple on three dice, leaves the game carrying a steep house advantage against the player, cited at roughly 95.8 percent. Historical references to the game appear in Japanese writing going back to the Edo period, including in the autobiography of the minor samurai Katsu Kokichi, which places kitsune bakuchi among the everyday gambling pastimes of that era rather than a formal or courtly game. The name's reference to foxes reflects a broader association in Japanese folklore between foxes, trickery and games of chance, rather than any literal role for the animal in play.