Quincunx?

Word of the day is ‘quincunx’, the pattern of five on a six-sided die.

A quincunx can also refer to a crude probability-modeling device (animated here), a simple rolling ball that falls through a field of nails — distributing nice, Gaussian mounds o’ pellets on someone’s carpet.

…all of which leads us to pachinko and pinball, both championship sports in my book. A thousand jackpots in Caesar’s Palace couldn’t out-shout the everyday drone of a pachinko parlor, and the fine folks at FIFA still haven’t put on a game more thrilling than World Cup Soccer ‘94…