Yes, gambling. But not actual gambling, eSports gambling, or anything involving any actual exchange of money or things that pretend to be money. Those are all stupid and I'm pretty sure (though not certain) that kind of discussion is against the ToS. (I'm not calling it the CoC, because that reminds me of a very different thing.)

I mean simulated gambling. No stakes games like your Hoyle Casino.

One of my favorite card games is 5 card draw. I know, it's an old boring classic, but while I understand what Hold'Em is, I can safely say I don't give a toss since it just seems to be 7 card stud with extra steps.

I've played various casino and card games, and one of the most spartan/no-nonsense ones I've recalled to mind is [IIRC] The Best of Poker by one of those obscure dollar store labels, such as ValuSoft, and Friday Night Poker (but not the one on Mobygames).

Of recent times, I've slightly become curious of Mahjong. But not the solitaire type (though that is an evergreen thing), but rather the form of it which involves many rules and varieties, but more specifically, Rīchi. While no longer firmly established in the gambling roots, the points system it uses for score, was basically an exchange of yen between players.

Just that like the card games I like, I've rarely found anyone who is ever up for a no-stakes game. And due to the ratings boards of many countries clamping down on gambling without actually solving the real problem of whales & skinner boxes,

Anyhow, before I go on a ramble in that direction, I'll push this thread off with a question: Do you have a favorite no-stakes gambling computer game? How about a parlor game of chance in general? Roulette is pretty nice!

'Tos' or 'CoC', whether intentional or not, can be seen to venture down that rather dark, wet and slippery alleyway, 'hand in hand', or rather 'member in hand'...

I liked Vegas Stakes on the SNES as a kid. I just stuck to blackjack and the slots though, maybe some roulette. Craps and poker weren't intuitive for my child brain.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is fun with its poker and blackjack minigames. I've also enjoyed Governor of Poker for a while. Oddly, more than Poker Night at the Inventory.

But usually I'm not extremely fond of games with too much reliance on luck, so I don't gamble much (I mean, even in RPGs that present the opportunity).

I really like the liar's dice game from Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. Some people like to moan that it's too confusing but when you get the rules (really quite straight forward) it's genuinely fun to play and imho much more engaging than some standard poker or black jack.

I've tried to understand Craps. And Cribbage. Craps just seems complicated for the sake of it, and Cribbage I get, but actually getting a gameflow going isn't so easy when even the easiest computer opponent skunks you 2:1.

Poker, deal me in though. I was disappointed to learn that Card Shark contained no actual cardplay.

I finally understood poker, probably due to Far Cry 3 and Witcher 2 having poker games, probably also San Andreas and Saints Row 2. Far Cry 3 also taught me one of the better ways to win is to make everyone else fold even if you have a garbage hand. Psyops baby.

Haven't played many if any games that had craps though. It's like, there's a bunch of dice and you have to pick a set? Isn't that just roulette but not really? I'm sure I'd pick it up if I played a few games, but I can't even think of any big games that have craps in it.

Er, as I vaguely understand Craps, you basically have to play the odds against your next diceroll, and there's a bunch of rules regarding that.

I forgot if the Hanafuda card game (it's Koi-Koi) in the recent Sakura Wars had a gambling aspect or not but it is the best reason to own the game other than enjoying the game itself (mostly dating sim mixed with robot action).

That said, I spent a ton of time playing the casino poker game in New Super Mario Bros on the DS. Aside from playing 5 card draw at school (where we indeed simulated gambling with checkers pieces) it's the main place I learned how to play poker. I know that means not really but it was where I grew my interest in it. I am not very good, never was, but it is still a very fun game to play still.

When my grandmother was in the hospital for a stretch when I was a kid we spent a lot of time waiting in the hospital so my mom let me borrow her phone, which had a black jack game on it. That is where I learned how to play black jack.

I almost forgot the Witcher games with dice poker (thanks for reminding me, Warloch_Ahead). The first game was easily the best one. No worrying about tossing the dice out of the play area, just good clean toss of the dice. Witcher 2 was also pretty good with the poker but they introduced the aforementioned physics based stupidity. And then they let you continue to dominate in Witcher 3 in Novigrad and beyond... no, wait, they introduced some trash card battle game. Why they did this and refused to allow for the dice poker to return is... probably because they found a way to monetize their stupid card game.

Oh, Hanafuda does have connection to gambling; in that it was developed and became popular due to a gambling ban. Which neatly connects to Nintendo, as they sold hanafuda card sets, popularizing and capitalizing on it. I forgot about the various card games of the DS Mario games, which is a bit of a shame as they're quite iconic. Unlike New Super Mario Bros.

Yeah, I actually have a couple Nintendo Hanafuda decks. When I was a kid my relatives would play Go-stop (with Hwatu cards) a lot. Actually, I'm more used to seeing the Korean versions of the cards than the Japanese ones. I do prefer the Japanese art more.

I like poker if there is no stakes involved.

In Ultima 7, you can get exponenteally increasing amounts of money by gambling. It involves a certain race that you can bet on.
* Place money on one of the four spots, then save the game. (I think you can place up to 100 gold; since the growth is exponential, the more you place initially, the faster this will go.)
* Bet on the race. If you win, your bet will be increased 3x (or 6x if you're a cult member).
* If you lose, just reload. (Common strategy in games with gambling but no permadeath-like save mechanics.)
* If you win, you now have more money, still in that spot. Don't pick it up; instead, save the game and go back to the "Bet on the race" step.
* Keep going until you have all the money you'll ever need, or the game crashes. Thing is, gold in Ultima 7 is represented via separate objects, so as the amount of gold on the table increases exponentially, so does the amount of memory that the game uses. It doesn't take long before the game tries to use more memory than it is able to (within the constraints of DOS and the CPUs of the time) and crashes.

(This exhaustion of memory is similar to what can happen with a joke Morrowind mod called Racer Recursion.)

In the Dragon Quest games (from 4 onward), saving the game is done at a church, so if you want to earn money from gambling, you pray (or, in modern translations, confess) at a church, gamble, and then reload if things go terribly. Essentially, you're gambling religiously. In DQ6, there's even a town where the people were greedy enough to build a church right on top of the casino in order to facilitate religious gambling (or, at least, that's one way of interpreting that).


Another game I remembered with gambling is Wasteland 1; it even has a skill for that. Furthermore:
* Apparently, this skill can be increased rather high through usage. In Wasteland 1 Classic, you can even use this to raise the skill so high that further increases at the library will give you extra skill points.
* In the DOS version (Wasteland 1 Classic), it's possible to end up spawning a loot bag that points to some strange area of memory. This allows you to take tons of items, including things like Red Ryder Rifles (does 200d6 damage on a successful hit, no autofire though) and various glitch items, such as NAME AC.

Got a particular type you prefer?