The dice are dropped into the top of the tower and bounce off of several interior ramps before emerging from an opening at the base of the tower. Some dice towers include a walled off area for the dice to land in so that they are not scattered across the table. Players who find hand-rolling dice difficult may also utilize dice towers.
In tournament backgammon, a dice tower, often referred to as a dice tumbler, is commonly used to ensure fairness by reducing the possibility of a player's intentional influence on the roll.
In tabletop role-playing games, a dice tower may have the additional purpose of allowing the players to roll dice, while only the gamemaster can see the result of the roll. This is sometimes called a "blind roll" and is useful in cases where a player character must make a dice roll for an action, without knowing whether they succeed or not. A blind roll can be facilitated by positioning the dice tower in such a way that players can drop the dice into the tower, but the dice landing area is hidden from view, for example behind a GM screen.
