The story most people tell about tribal casinos is neat and convenient. That it is a modern industry, seized as an economic opportunity. Robert J. Madden’s research points somewhere much older. “We’re talking about a very deep cultural tradition,” he tells me, “probably one of the oldest continuous cultural practices in North America.” Not decades old. Not centuries old. If his research is right, Native American gambling traditions stretch back 12,000 years, forming an unbroken line from Ice Age campsites to present-day casino floors. It lands at a moment when the legal structure governing tribal gaming is being tested in ways its authors never anticipated. Tracing the origins of tribal gambling and Native American dice games Madden, who is the author behind “Probability in the Pleistocene: Origins and Antiquity of Native American Dice, Games of Chance and Gambling” approached the problem with the instincts of a litigator. A former trial attorney turned archaeologist, evidence had to be consistent across time and strong enough to support inference without guesswork. When we’re talking about Native Americans and …