Very interesting indeed. I think that applies to many forms of gambling. Dice are ubiquitous in board games, but are similarly under-represented in game shows. There's High Rollers and Yahtzee, and dice that played a comparatively smaller role on Monopoly, Big Showdown and Dealer's Choice. Even if you count applications like Dice Game on TPIR, I'm in Matt's camp of "essentially..." there are few.
I doubt producers all stood around and said "we need to keep gambling to a minimum!" But I imagine there's an aversion to it because there's less control over the payouts and/or the house edge in the base games makes their use as TV games less compelling.
-Jason
As an aside, at first Video Village used a chuck-a-luck to determine the number of steps to take. It was not integral to the game and was later replaced with an electronic device, with Kenny Williams continuing to bellow out the numbers.
Shenanigans also used an electronic device for the same purpose, with Kenny Williams calling the numbers.
