Best Fictional Gambling Games from Film and TV

Gambling has been a popular source of entertainment in the real world for years, with fans enjoying everything from Canada casino games to wagering on sports. The industry has also managed to make its way into fiction through numerous TV shows and films, which have also inspired more interesting titles. Here are some great fictional gambling games that you might see in different films and television shows.

Triad in Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is among the best sci-fi TV shows of all time. The show is about a battleship “the Battlestar Galactica” and a spacecraft carrier searching for a new home for the last 50,000 humans surviving after a devastating nuclear attack from a cybernetic race known as Cyclones.

Triad is the game played by the Battlestar crew and the other survivors on the ship. The game features a 52-card deck with numbers and suits, which makes it similar to poker. However, the highest winning hand in Triad is “Full Colours” and it uses hexagonal cards.

Poker in In Time

“In Time” is another interesting sci-fi movie, where time is used as the currency and everyone has an individual clock to count to their death. In this film, Justin Timberlake (Will Salas) visits a casino where he wins a millennium in time, greatly extending his life. The movie only shows the part where Will plays against the ultra-rich Philippe Weiss, although the hand is a bit preposterous – even by movie standards.

Sabacc in Star Wars

When it comes to popular sci-fi gambling games, Sabacc remains largely unmatched. The game is widely referred to in the Star Wars franchise and it’s thanks to this epic game that Han Solo managed to get the Millenium Falcon when playing against Lando Calrissian.

Looking at how the game works, you can tell that sabacc is incredibly similar to blackjack. The game features 76 cards, with 60 distributed evenly across four suits and 16 special cards, each with numerical values. To win, the player must get a total of 23, when the value of their cards is added up or be as close as possible with exceeding the number.

Dabo in Star Trek

To date, Star Trek remains among the most popular science fiction TV shows, expanding to other media, including video games, films, comics and more. Dabo is quite popular in the Star Trek universe and it’s evident that the game is highly inspired by roulette. The game features multiple reels with various slots and the winner has to shout “Dabo!”.

Hunger Games Sports Betting

While it’s quite normal for people to bet on boxing, martial arts, football and other sports, the “Hunger Games” movie features another type of betting. This action-packed movie features a scene where the viewers of the “Hunger Games” wager on the death or survival of the participants. However, the implementation of this gambling scene in the movie has great attention to detail.

Conclusion

Mixing gambling and movies is an extremely popular crossover that has worked many times, helping to achieve huge success in the entertainment sector. The awesome environment and the thrill of casinos is a great opportunity for movie producers to add while creating films, whether it’s sci-fi, action or romances.

Don Draper
Don Draper
Donald Francis "Don" Draper is a founding partner and the Creative Director at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Advertising Agency in Manhattan, NY. Prior to that position, he was the Director of the Creative Department at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. He is regarded among his colleagues as the best to ever pitch copy.