Editing Shut the box (section)

== History ==

[[File:Domaine_de_Chanteloup,_jeux_9.JPG|thumb|Game at the entrance of the park to the [[Pagode de Chanteloup]], Touraine]]

Unconfirmed histories of the game suggest a variety of origins, including 12th century [[Normandy]] (northern [[France]]) as well as the mid 20th century [[Channel Islands]] ([[Jersey]] and [[Guernsey]]), which one source credits to a man known as 'Chalky' Towbridge.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Finn |first1=Timothy |title=Pub Games of England |date=1975 |publisher=Queen Anne Press |location=London |isbn=9780362002461 |edition=New}}</ref> A 1967 edition of ''Brewing Review'' describes the game as being native to the Channel Islands, and records it being played in Manchester pubs in the mid-1960s.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cVcEAQAAIAAJ&q=%22shut+the+box%22+dice|title = 'Shut the Box' at Wilson's New House|date = 1967|journal = Brewing Review}}</ref>

Taylor in "Pub Games" from 1976 mentions a claim that the game dates back to at least Napoleonic times.  He reports a revival in the United Kingdom in "the last fifteen years or so", that is from the 1960s.  [[Canada Dry]] distributed them to many pubs as a publicity novelty "some years" prior to 1976.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Mayflower| isbn = 978-0-583-12650-2| last = Taylor| first = Arthur R.| title = Pub Games| location = St. Albans| date = 1976|page=188}}</ref>

Shut the box is the basis of the American television quiz show ''[[High Rollers]]'', which ran from 1974 to 1976 and 1978 to 1980 on [[NBC]] with [[Alex Trebek]] as the host. The show resurfaced from 1987 to 1988, this time hosted by [[Wink Martindale]].

The game virtually disappeared from English pubs until 2018, when it ressurfaced at Hobo Kiosk in Liverpool, where DJ duo Coffee and Turntables helped to make it the most played pub game in the trendy [[Baltic Triangle]] that year.

Versions of the game have also been played in Barotseland ([[Zambia]], central [[Africa]]).