Jewish Invention Myths: Yahtzee

An interesting ‘jewish invention’ myth that I initially bypassed thinking that jews couldn’t possibly be lying about ‘inventing’ it – more fool me for making such an assumption – is the popular dice game ‘Yahtzee’.

In this ‘jewish invention’ narrative it is claimed that jewish travelling salesman and entrepreneur Edwin Lowe – who is also falsely credited with having invented the popular game ‘Bingo’ – (1) developed and patented ‘Yahtzee’ circa 1956 in the United States.

The truth is however explained in detail by the Yahtzee community website ‘The Yahtzee Manifesto’ as follows:

‘Yahtzee’s modern day resurrection is thanks to two independent events in the 1940s. The Leister Game Company in Toledo, Ohio saw board gaming's popularity rise during World War Two as fuel shortages and financial belt-tightening prompted families to spend more time at home. As the company noted:

“Now that gas rationing has ushered in a back-to-the-home movement, material for home entertainment and for those informal occasions when neighbors and friends drop in is in great demand.”

Among the many games and novelties that Leister produced during this era was “Yatzie”, released in 1943. While not quite the game that we know today, “Yatzie” was a precursor that was included in a boxed set called “Luck – 15 Grand Dice Games”. It would be familiar to a modern Yahtzee player as there are only a few minor differences in the rules and scoring combinations. Yatzie did not have a Three-of-a-Kind, for instance, and both Straights required five sequential dice.

“Luck”, distributed by Toledo’s National Association Service became a regional success, but the other games in the set did not manage to form a lasting impression on the gaming public. Dice games such as “Floradora Sextette”, “Black Cat”, and “Help Your Neighbor” have been mostly been confined to the dust bin of history.

The second major contribution to modern Yahtzee was due to a wealthy Canadian couple who rediscovered the games ancient origins while on a tour of Tibet in the early twentieth century. They were immediately won over by the game’s complex simplicity and began playing it regularly as they cruised around the world on their private yacht. The couple updated the rules and created a more modern type of scorecard, referring to it as the “Yacht Game” or “The Yacht at Sea Game”, which eventually was corrupted into its current manifestation, “Yahtzee.”

In 1956 the couple approached an experienced board game maker, Edwin S. Lowe, and a deal was struck to mass-produce the game. They sold the rights for the price of the first one thousand games produced, which were purchased mainly by family and friends who had grown to love Yahtzee from their visits to the yacht.’ (2)

Now – aside from ‘The Yahtzee Manifesto’s’ correct (but somewhat misleading in my opinion) equation of Yahtzee with ancient dice games such as the ancient Egyptian game ‘Sekmet’ – their short history of the origins of Yahtzee completely blows apart the idea that Edwin Lowe invented Yahtzee at all.

Since there are two possible sources of Yahtzee – and both may in fact be true since they are not mutually exclusive by any means – and neither have Lowe inventing it but rather taking an existing game from others and then marketing and selling it under the aegis of his company.

Lowe’s family have desperately been trying to undermine this narrative over the years with – for example - Marjorie Ingall claiming in ‘Tablet Magazine’ in 2016 that:

‘As for Yahtzee, its origins are shrouded in mystery. The story goes that in 1956, Lowe was invited by a wealthy Canadian couple to a party aboard their yacht. They’d invented a dice game to play with guests, and they wanted Lowe to produce a version they could give away to friends. Lowe agreed if they’d give him the rights to sell the game; in exchange, he’d give them the first 1,000 copies. Lowe changed the game’s name from “The Yacht Game” to “Yahtzee.” (This story is apocryphal because no one has ever identified the mysterious rich Canadians. Haymes doubts the story about Yahtzee’s genesis; in the family’s own narrative, Lowe—who was already famous for bingo—invented the game and brought it to a party on a boat. “I don’t buy these ‘Canadian yachters’ at all,” Haymes said drily. “‘Canada’ is a euphemism for ‘I don’t really know.’”)’ (3)

This claim – that the ‘Canadian couple’ is simply a euphemism for ‘I don’t really know’ - is absurd since as far as I – or anyone else who isn’t jewish apparently – (4) can work out the ‘Canadian couple’ origin actually comes from Lowe admitting as much himself, which makes perfect sense in that Lowe was not – and never was – a games designer (he was after all actually a travelling salesman) as such but rather simply a jewish businessman who specialized in bringing the creations of others to market.

And even if the ‘Canadian couple’ is actually a euphemism for ‘I don’t really know’ claim was valid then that still leaves out the fact that an almost identical game called ‘Yatzie’ was being played quite widely from 1943 onwards some thirteen years before Lowe’s ‘Yahtzee’ appeared in 1956.

So in other words: the origins of Yahtzee are not jewish in the slightest and are either found in Toledo, Ohio and/or in a wealthy Canadian couple years before Lowe brought ‘Yahtzee’ to market.

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-bingo

(2) https://www.yahtzeemanifesto.com/History/yahtzee-history.php

(3) https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/a-roll-of-the-dice

(4) For example: https://www.netnewsledger.com/2023/06/15/the-story-of-canadian-dice-game-yahtzee/