Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called pips or dots) or is blank. The backs of the tiles are indistinguishable. The gaming pieces make up a domino set. The traditional European domino set is made up of 28 tiles, also known as pieces, bones, rocks, stones, men, cards or just dominoes, featuring all combination of spot counts between zero and six.
A variety of games can be played with a domino set. Some of these games include Matador, Muggins, Texas 42, Chicken Foot, Concentraion and Mexican Train. In Britian the most popular league and pub game is fives and threes. Including the blanks, there are 28 unique pieces in a double six set.
When playing with more than four people, It is better to use extended sets. The most common extended set is the double twelve set which has 91 tiles.
Modern dominoes first appeared in Italy in during the 18th century. They differ from the Chinese dominoes and there is no confirmed link between the two. European dominoes may have developed independently or Italian missionaries in China may have brought the game to to Europe.
In 1889, dominoes was described as having spread worldwide, but nowhere is it more popular than in the cafes of France and Belgium.
Up until 2015, it was it was illegal to play dominoes on Sunday in the U.S. state of Alabama.
Most domino games are blocking games, where the objective is to empty one's hand, while blocking the opponents. In the end, the score is determined by counting the pips (dots) in the losing players hands. The lower the score, the better.