Best Fictional Gambling Games From TV And Film

Gambling is hugely popular in the real world, but it’s also made its way into fiction across numerous television shows and films. Below, we’ve compiled some of the best fictional gambling games from film and television. Find out whether your favourite has made the list!

Triad in Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is renowned as one of the best sci-fi television shows of all time, following spacecraft carrier and battleship the Battlestar Galactica as it searches for a new home for the remaining 50,000 human survivors following a devastating nuclear attack by a race of cybernetic beings known as Cylons.

Triad is a game played by the human survivors and crew of the Battlestar Galactica. The game uses a 52-card deck with suits and numbers, which, according to smartphonecasinos.co.uk, make it incredibly similar to poker. 

However, Triad’s highest-winning hand combination is ‘Full Colours’. The game uses hexagonal cards but rules for the game are unknown as the show’s cast were told to improvise when playing the card game. 

Poker in In Time

In Time is a sci-fi movie in which society stops again at 25, and time has replaced all other currency, with every person having an individual clock that counts down to their death. Time can be bought and sold, used for purchases, and it can be gambled too. 

In the film, Will Salas, played by Justin Timberlake, visits a casino and plays poker, where he wins over a millennium in time, extending his life dramatically. No other time-based casino games were shown in the film, but it’s likely that they exist too. 

Sabacc in Star Wars

Star Wars is one of the most science fiction franchises of all time, spanning numerous films, television shows, comics, novels, video games, and more. The universe is so expansive that there are numerous gambling games available, including a gambling planet. Of those games, Sabacc is arguably the most popular. 

The game is played by Han Solo, who won the Millennium Falcon by competing in the game. Similar to blackjack, the game requires players to create a hand with a total that’s as close as possible to the value of 23. Sabacc features a deck of 76 cards, all of which have varying values. Like real-life games, there are numerous variations of Sabacc where rules and card values change, including randomly during play. 

Dabo in Star Trek

Star Trek is one of the most famous science fiction television shows of all time. Like Star Wars, it’s expanded into other media too, including films, video games, comics, and more. Dabo is a very popular game within the Star Trek universe. The game is heavily inspired by roulette and features multiple reels, all of which have various slots with unique symbols. When winning, players shout “Dabo!”.

There are numerous other fictional gambling games available, but we believe that these are some of the most common and most well-known. Most of them have been inspired by real-life gambling games, so if you’re familiar with those, chances are you’d be great at playing some of these games too!