It is stress relief with a roll of the dice. It is bonding and raucous laughter. It is a time to stop bringing home the bacon or frying it up in a pan.

“It” is Bunco.

Bunco (or Bunko) is a boisterous dice game catching on in popularity around the country among women who often meet monthly to play, laugh and shake off their Superwoman complex for an hour or two.

Unlike bridge, pinochle or even poker, Bunco requires no memorization of complex rules. The game is simple and requires minimal concentration – which allows players to engage in free-flowing discussions on topics ranging from the serious to the silly.

When 12 Hermiston women met recently for their monthly Bunco night, they sat around three card tables and let the dice fly. The atmosphere was decidedly female.

“This is ‘No Man Land,’ ” Cherie Montee said. “We kick our husbands out.”

Their reasons for taking time out for Bunco are remarkably similar.

“It’s therapy,” Robbie Eidson said.

“Sisterhood,” Virginia Ortega added.

“This is where we catch up on the gossip for the month,” Eidson said.

And laughter is a recurring theme.

“For me, it’s a time to come and laugh over absolutely nothing,” Sheila Botti said.

Around the women, aroma from several burning candles drifted around the living room. Bowls of Chex mix and jelly beans were scattered around the room.

Dana Tassie hosted the evening this time around, but the game shifts to a new home each month.

As they played, waves of ear-shattering giggling overpowered the sound of soft music wafting from Tassie’s stereo speakers. Three separate conversations – one at each table – overlapped each other so someone passing through only would hear a disjointed jumble of words and phrases.

At one table, the topic was serious – a family member’s struggle with cancer. Next table over, the subject matter was lighter. The women discussed what kind of tattoo they would get if they ever got one.

One player pondered whether she could deal with the pain.

“I’ve given birth twice,” said another player. “I could handle a tattoo.”

Laughter erupted.

After hypothesizing what their husbands’ reactions would be if they came home newly tattooed, the conversation drifted to a new topic.

Periodically throughout the evening, shouts of “Bunco” pierced the hubbub. A scream usually was followed by a duplicate scream from her partner and an exchange of high-fives.

A Bunco happens when all three dice come up showing the number the table is rolling, which changes sequentially.

Every time someone new rolls a Bunco, the player is awarded a traveling trophy. For this group, the prize is a pair of fuzzy dice connected by a string which is draped around the winner’s neck.

The pace is controlled by the head table. Someone at that table rings a cowbell when one of the two teams at the table reaches 21 points. The losing team does the Walk of Shame to the losers’ table while the winning team stays put. At the losers’ table, the winning team moves to the middle table. The winner from the middle table goes to the head table.

The players join up with a fresh partner each new round.

Each player tracks her cumulative score. Before starting, each player throws five dollars into a pot. At the end of the night, the pot is divided between players who had the most Buncos, the most wins, the least wins and the last Bunco.

The Hermiston group is not alone in their monthly night of letting go. Other groups of Bunco players are laughing away their troubles all across the country.

Every Bunco group, it seems, has a different variation of the game, tweaking the rules this way and that, but every group seems to have laughter as the common denominator.

The game has been around for decades, beginning in England during the 18th century and brought to the U.S. in 1855 by a crooked gambler, according to the World Bunco Association.

Amanda Calvert, of Athena, said she enjoys the camaraderie and craziness of the game. She subs with an Athena Bunco group and often hosts Bunco sessions as a Home Interiors representative. Sometimes she has seven tables going at once.

“There is a lot of energy,” she said. “When there’s a Bunco, hands go flying up.”

She remembered one husband who ducked his head in for just a moment.

He shook his head in wonder.

“His remark was, ‘They sound like they’re watching the Super Bowl,’ ” Calvert said.

Girls just want to have fun.