History Main / BettingMiniGame

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto: [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' features a number of ways to bet money, including horse racing, low-rider bouncing and casinos with games such as poker, roulette, and pool.

* The street games One Shot and Roll Over the Top in ''{{Shenmue}} II''.

* Before WoW, ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' had similar random number commands that were used this way. The main difference, however, is that EQ's version of the "random" number roller originally had a bug in it that caused the numbers picked to not be truly random, and knowing how this bug worked allowed the players running the games to unfairly stack the odds in their favor. Many a new player were fleeced out of their coin before Sony fixed the bug.

[[folder:{{MMORPG}}s]]

** In ''Black and White'', there is no Game Corner whatsoever -- don't even bother importing from Japan because they've been removed there too.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has a "Money Making Game" referencing the ''Zelda'' example above. Its current form has you making a bet for a certain amount, and another player (actual living person playing the online game) matches that amount. Then the RandomNumberGod determines who wins ''a trifle less than double'' their original bet, and who loses the whole pot.

* An NPC in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' suggests to Link, "[[YouNoTakeCandle Let's play money making game]]." Said NPC leaves unspecified exactly ''who'' will be making the money, of course. To clarify on how the game works, there are 3 rupees on display and each one gives or takes a certain amount. One gives you the bonus, the other one takes a few rupees away, and the last one takes a lot of rupees away from you. Because of the game's {{Engrish}}, many people did not understand what was going on in the game at first.

* You could also gamble in a casino. One of the gilded falcons you could collect to get item upgrades could be won by winning a wheel spinning game a number of times in a row. Problem was, the odds of winning any given spin was about 1 in 3 - with the possibility of no winner (like a regular roulette wheel). You had to win 4 times in a row in order to get the falcon - literally odds of 1 in 81 assuming you never hit black. There seemed to no pattern you could follow to achieve victory, only odds and guesswork.
** The wheel would always stop amongst a certain set of 5 consecutive spaces dependent on the starting position. With this information in hand the odds of winning 4 times in a row goes up to a minimum of 1 in 39 (which admittedly is still pretty bad). What made this sidequest worse was the fact that even after acquiring the gilded falcon, you had to win 4 times in a row all over again to get one of the [[HeartContainer Life Vessels]]

* ''VideoGame/DejaVu II: Lost in Las Vegas'' has a Blackjack mini-game that Ace Harding can use to win money. Since cash is often needed for items and train fare, the mini-game is actually ''mandatory'', and Ace has to wander around the desert to look for more money to bet if he loses all of it at the tables. Fortunately, you can circumvent this by either SaveScumming or loosening the odds by showing the dealer proof that you and he are old buddies.
** The original ''Deja Vu'' title also had a slot machine mini-game, but it was more or less optional.

** Another Sierra adventure game, ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'', had a poker minigame with a bit of a twist; your money didn't really matter (as long as you didn't lose it playing), you just needed to win to progress in the game.

* The slot machine in ''SuperSmashBrosMelee'' which is used to get trophies.
** Similarly, in ''Brawl'' there's a "Spectator" mode where players can bet coins on replays of wi-fi matches, earning more coins and sometimes power-up stickers in the process.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' makes you play slots between levels with the coins you've collected, but that's okay, because that's all they're good for. A player who's reasonably good at timing his button presses can gain an extra life for nearly every coin he puts in once he's gotten one.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' has a hill conveniently located near the castle where a player may play a wheel of fortune game for items and extra lives... or he may get some coins in return. Naturally, the more coins that are put in, the better the prize selection. Again, that's all these coins are good for and unlike in all other Mario games, collecting 100 of them doesn't automatically get you an extra life.
* In ''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3'', at the end of each level, you can play a game in which you pick one of two buckets. One has a moneybag, which doubles the coins you collected in the level, and the other has a 10 ton weight which cuts your coins in half. You can pick up to three times. In this game, the ending is based on how many coins and treasures you get.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64 DS'' has 8 betting mini-games (all which are from Luigi, and the '''Pair-and-Gone and On''' mini-game does not have coins, so it doesn't count), and some of the mini-games must be unlocked by capturing Green Bunnies/Rabbits (they will only appear when playing as Luigi, as far as I know). The money used in the mini-games are coins (obviously). However, the coins in the mini-games are not used in-game.
** Three of these mini-games (Pair-a-Gone, Picture Poker and Memory Match) are also in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros DS''. Again, the mini-game coins are seperate from the coins in the main game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' features dice shops. They don't sell the dice.
** It's interesting to note that because of the way it's set up (You roll two die. 1-6 is a loss for you, 7 gets you an item, and 8-12 gets you your money back doubled) if you play forever, you'll roughly break even, and get all the items you need.

** Unfortunately, it seems every player in that game are sore losers. They refuse to play with you after you win about five hands, and there usually wasn't more than one or two players on any given planet.
*** There are at least two Pazaak players that don't mind playing to infinity. Gelrood in lower Taris and the Rodian in Fazza's lodge. One of the most popular mods is "extreme" Pazaak which spawns "no limit" Pazaak dealers on Taris and Korriban.
* The casinos in most ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''[=/=]''Dragon Warrior'' games.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' had either a bug or a deliberate flaw in its casino games. There was one particular bet setup for roulette you could use that would always make a profit.
* The casinos (Game Corners) located throughout the various ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games. In this case, however, it's not very efficient for making money, since the games have to be played using tokens rather than the usual money, and you can't turn them back into money. HundredPercentCompletion requires either long hours gambling or a lot of token-buying, however, as inevitably one Pokemon can only be obtained as a prize in the Game Corner (the original being Porygon). However, in the last two generations they didn't even give Mons, just items.
** As noted above, due to the change in the law, this was stripped from ''Pokémon Platinum'', replaced with just randomly spawning coins. This was particularly jarring since there was no explanation offered as to why it was removed. It did however, thanks to the DS's region-free nature, become an incentive to import from America.
*** Victory was entirely random in the original slots game. Very little the player could do would actually ''increase'' the payout received. In short, the change in accordance to European gambling laws meant that you spend a lot less time watching drums spin and Clefairy dancing.
** In ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'', ''all'' the versions aside from Japan had the slots replaced with a card game. Thankfully, Voltorb Flip is just as addictive.
** MoralGuardians got the "Gambler" trainer class renamed "Gamer" in ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]''. But they left the actual gambling in the game...
*** ''Diamond'', ''Pearl'', and ''Platinum'' take this further: the trainers are now referred to as [=PI=]'s, [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar despite retaining their original dialog]].
** In Black and White, there is no Game Corner whatsoever -- don't even bother importing from Japan because they've been removed there too.

* The city of New Reno in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' has a number of casinos with roulette tables and one-armed bandits. There are other, smaller casinos in towns and villages throughout the rest of the country.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' features gambling mini-games: blackjack, slots, and roulette in casinos that have predetermined limits to your winnings (once you break the bank, you're banned from the games in that casino), and some [=NPCs=] will play the card game Caravan if you ask. SaveScumming on the slots and table games is discouraged as the dealers and machines have post-save "anti-cheating measures" that prevent you from playing for fifty seconds.
*** However, since there are five different casinos whose banks you can break, doing so usually makes you so wealthy that you can go from threadbare waster armed mostly with gumption into a minigun-and-missile-launcher-wielding, power-armor-clad super-soldier with cybernetics out the wazoo. The ''Dead Money'' DLC adds a sixth, semi-functional casino that pays off in unique currency (it having been sealed before the Great War, and thus before the bottlecap became the default currency) that can be traded in for BoringButPractical items like Stimpacks and Weapon Repair Kits.

* The original ''UltimaVII'': if you join the corrupt Fellowship, the Rat Race casino game pays 6 to 1. Since it has only four possibilities, you can make as much money as you want by repeatedly betting on all four at the same time. Corruption pays, though this game was also infamous for having memory problems if too much gold was created.
** It also had a virtue (roulette) wheel at the pirate town. You could bet on any or all of the eight virtues... which paid out at 10 to 1.
* The game ''Legacy of the Ancients'' had blackjack, and a game called flip-flop, which was a bit like pachinko but with more strategy. With a little practice, you could win steadily; but if you won too much in one session, the betting parlor would close down and the town guards would grab you and throw you in jail unless you hightailed it out of town.
** The amount was 1000 gold in one sitting at the Apple 2e and 800 gold on the Commodore 64. This Troper got burned by the difference when she started playing on a Commodore version after getting used to the Apple 2 one. The Apple 2 version of Blackjack also had a bug where you'd automatically win the first hand.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' features a dice-based poker variation which you can play with a number of [=NPCs=] scattered throughout the game. Each NPC has a set amount of money that you can win, limiting your winnings, although it is circumventable as they refill their wallets on a regular basis.
** There's also an optional tournament ladder that rewards higher amounts of XP. Completing this gives opportunity to the Crowning Moment of playing against the King for the highest stakes.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' had a casino with Blackjack and Slots. Although the location of the casino is very well hidden - the clues given to its location are very vague. Something of a GuideDangIt, really.
** Don't forget the "Look the other way" game, which was basically a coin flip game (the goal of which was to press left or right and hope the computer didn't pick the same direction you did). However, winning 100 rounds of it resulted in a very nice prize.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto: [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' features a number of ways to bet money, including horse racing, low-rider bouncing and casinos with games such as poker and roulette.
** Don't forget about pool. I could spend all day playing pool in that game.
** ''[[GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad Of Gay Tony]]'' had a game where you could either walk into a fight arena for a small entry fee, and keep fighting until you fell (or pull out when you knew it was imminent) or bet a potentially insane amount on someone else's fight. Save scumming is possible with either.

* ''DeadRising2'' takes place in Fortune City, essentially a miniature replacement Las Vegas. As such, a plethora of gambling minigames can be found throughout the game, including dozens upon dozens of slot machines, chambers that fill up with cash, video blackjack, video poker, Texas Hold 'Em with other survivors, and more.

* The ''EscapeVelocity'' series traditionally included a gambling game in bars on various planets. Earlier games had a slot machine; Nova changed it to betting on a Viper race.

* ''TheSpellcastingSeries'' features a betting house in the third game, with various games of chance that are loosely based on real-world casino games. Barring [[GuideDangIt complete knowledge of the game]], most players will be forced to use it at some point or another if they wish to solve every puzzle. While the game forbids SaveScumming inside the casino, you can simply make one move outside and do it there instead, which allows a player to get all the money they'll need pretty easily.

* Several casinos can be found in ''VideoGame/ThreeTheHardWay'', which offers this. The game limits the maximum amount of gold you may earn, however.

* ''VideoGame/DejaVu II: Lost in Las Vegas'' has a Blackjack mini-game that Ace Harding can use to win money. Since cash is often needed for items and train fare, the mini-game is actually ''mandatory'', and Ace has to wander around the desert to look for more money to bet if he loses all of it at the tables. Fortunately, there are two [[GameBreaker ways to circumvent this]]: either save and reload your game as needed, or loosen the odds by showing the dealer proof that you and he are old buddies.

* [[MinigameZone Two Zeelichian casinos]] in ''LittleBigAdventure II''. Thankfully, if you do manage to run out of money, you can always get a few coins from a random flower pot or trash can and start again.
* ''VideoGame/{{Landstalker}}'' on the Genesis had a betting minigame where you attempted to throw an iron ball onto a set of moving platforms. The faster the platform moved, the better prize you got. However, if you won the max prize too many times in a row, the game's owner would stop you from playing from the rest of the game, because you're "too good".

* Indie game ''VideoGame/AnUntitledStory'' features a blackjack game in birdtown where you can wager your crystals. However, [[SaveScumming saving and reloading]] [[DefiedTrope isn't exploitable]]. The money loss is saved in the file even if ''you don't save''.

* The classic [=MacVenture=] game ''Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas'' has a Blackjack mini-game that Ace Harding can use to win money. Since cash is often needed for items and train fare, the mini-game is actually ''mandatory'', and Ace has to wander around the desert to look for more money to bet if he loses all of it at the tables. Fortunately, there are two [[GameBreaker ways to circumvent this]]: either save and reload your game as needed, or loosen the odds by showing the dealer proof that you and he are old buddies.
** The Original ''Deja Vu'' title also had a slot machine mini-game, but it was more or less optional.

* Playing the slot machine was actually a requirement in the original ''SpaceQuest'', as it was the only way to raise enough money for some needed equipment. The designers made it extra-clear that they fully expected you to save and reload often by including a possible spin that killed you.
** The VGA remake of the game had a fun subversion. You could play fair as in the original, or you could cheat in-game by rigging the machine to win every time using an item acquired in the beginning of the game. The slot machine exploded after you'd won a certain amount (which was more than what you needed to complete the game).
** Another Sierra adventure game, ''PoliceQuest'', had a poker minigame with a bit of a twist; your money didn't really matter (as long as you didn't lose it playing), you just needed to win to progress in the game.

* ''GodHand'' has the Barely Regal casino and "chihuahua races" accessible between each stage.

* Averted in ''CityOfVillains'', while there is a section of city that looks like Las Vegas (complete with bright, neon lights and oddly shaped buildings, there is no where to gamble. Mostly, you get to help seedy casino folks in good ol' fashion Vegas-styled knee breaking.

* All entries in the ''{{Suikoden}}'' series has contained at least one such game - the classic is the dice-game 'Chinchirorin', but over the course of the games, it's also been possible to bet on dragon-horse races and play Blind Man's Bluff.

* There's a casino in Munari City in ''Summoner 2''. You can also bet on the Gladiators.

* ''{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}}'' has the slots in Serendipity. You can ''technically'' make movey off of them, but only very, very slowly. The only real reason to play them is to get a [[OneHundredPercentCompletion fragment]] by winning a certain (large) number of coins from them.
* ''{{Elona}}'' does it with many small quirks:

* A rare strategy example--Hybrid {{RTS}} / {{RPG}} / {{Sim}} game ''Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim'' includes elves who run a gambling house where you can gamble in game resources. On one particular mission, A Deal With a Demon, it's almost impossible to win without gambling and save-scumming.

** In ''Link to the Past'', there's some similar places where you pay your money and then open one treasure chest, getting a certain amount of rupees. One of these places holds [[HeartContainer a Piece of Heart]] in one of the chests, and in general the odds are ''much'' more in your favor.

* ''Landstalker'' on the Genesis had a betting minigame where you attempted to throw an iron ball onto a set of moving platforms. The faster the platform moved, the better prize you got. However, if you won the max prize too many times in a row, the game's owner would stop you from playing from the rest of the game, because you're "too good".
* ''Gun'' had a Texas Hold'em mini-game, a form of Poker for those not familiar. Frankly, it was dismal but you could win literally 40 dollars (this was a lot in the game) and you would have to try really hard to lose but it was very tedious. Not knowing anything about Poker I managed to beat all 6 levels of the mini-game in order to get the 100% bonuses.

* In ''[[AntarcticAdventure Penguin Adventure]]'', the shops have slot machines on which you can bet fish. You can only play each one three times unless you possess a certain item.

->-- '''Pegasus''', ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries, Episode 4''

* ''[[VideoGame/WarioLand Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3]]'', at the end of each level, allows you to play a game in which you pick one of two buckets. One has a moneybag, which doubles the coins you collected in the level, and the other has a 10 ton weight which cuts your coins in half. You can pick up to three times. In this game, the ending is based on how many coins and treasures you get.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' you'll find Flux, the casino - with one game, Quasar. That one game being a semirandom take on Twenty-One. Playing one machine for too long (over 6 rounds) will elicit a comment from the bar owner - continue to play at the same machine and you'll get thrown out. [[spoiler: One of the sidequests in the Citadel involves playing Quasar and ''winning'' five times - making changing machines mandatory so you don't get thrown out.]] Flux can be avoided - doing so will prevent the player from getting some sidequests.

*** Oh God, the slot machine in Melee. Don't even try to start betting on what you'll get with a coin...