History Main / FixingTheGame

* ''[[Film/TwentyOne 21]]'' is a film entirely about counting cards. They also did that in RealLife. The consequences are exaggerated in the film.

* In WalterJonWilliams's book ''AngelStation'', the protagonists are down-on-their-luck [[SiblingTeam brother and sister]] named Ubu Roy and Beautiful Maria (that is her full name). Maria is an "electronic witch", genetically-engineered with an ability to manipulate electrons with telekinesis. As a way of making money while they look for a contract, she plays a game (with a decent payout) that simulates navigating a ship through a field of black holes. Using her ability, she's able to win consistently by intercepting and altering computer signals before they appear on the screen. Ubu then suggests going for a big score and cheating at the roulette at a big casino on the titular space station. By that point, all casino games are electronic in nature, so Maria feels she has a good chance. She ends up winning a lot, but both are then taken to a back room, where it's revealed that the casino monitors all machines and detects any attempts at hacking them. Their only curiosity is the fact that Maria doesn't appear to have any equipment with her. They start beating on both of them. Even when Maria admits her ability, the [[CassandraTruth casino owners don't believe her]]. They are thrown out the back of the casino badly beaten and without their winnings.

are revealed to

** Of course he is still an idiot. He once gave away that fact that he used X-ray specs by revealing that a player had an internal problem.

* In the first MassEffect game, you have the option of helping a Salarian develop a cheating module for Quasar. Of course, cheating is illegal, so he has no intention of using it himself, just selling it to others.

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', Bender is an inveterate gambler, and he has no compunction against cheating. Hell, he even has a cheating unit, though it's prone to malfunction. He's fixed horse races, used [[XRayVision x-ray specs]], stacked decks...
** Of course he is still in idiot. He once gave away that fact that he used X-Ray specs by revealing that a player had an internal problem.

* In ''BadLieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans'', the main character catches a star college quarterback buying pot and blackmails him into shaving points on his next game. [[spoiler:The quarterback can't go through with it and fakes an injury to get out of the game, but his team fails to beat the spread anyway.]]

* ''{{Unforgettable}}'': the lead character has an [[PhotographicMemory Eiditic Memory]]; in an EstablishingScene she gets in trouble at a casino for counting cards.

* ''{{MASH}}'': Klinger gets in a craps game in the back room at Rosie's bar and discovers that the dice are loaded, causing a fight to break out.

* {{Angel}} accidentally lost his destiny and got stuck at the slots, feeding in money. Cordelia gave the machine a psychic nudge and Angel won.

* Played with in ''{{Gintama}}'' by having a man gifted with the ability to see the flow of luck, [[spoiler: which turned out that he lost that ability a few years back and has been cheating at games since then.]]

* In HarryHarrison's ''{{Deathworld}}'' series, the protagonist Jason [=dinAlt=] is a professional gambler, who uses his weak [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] ability to cheat at dice. He claims he can cheat at the roulette as well, but stopping a big wheel is more difficult than a small die. At the beginning of the first book, Kerk Pyrrus asks him to win 3 million for him. Unfortunately for them, the casino owner has connections in the planet's corrupt government. When Jason is on a big winning streak, the dealer keeps requesting new dice, hoping Jason's luck will change, culminating in him using dice that are obviously heavier on one side. With some quick thinking, Jason exposes the dealer by using a magnetic ashtray to reveal the rigged dice (the heavier side has metal in it). A security guard tries to intervene, but Kerk breaks his arm. Finally, when Jason has won all he can, they barely manage to get off-world by getting aboard a ship from a planet whose people absolutely hate the local WretchedHive. Jason isn't shown gambling again.

* In ''WheelOfTime'', Mat Cauthon occasionally gets accused of cheating. But he [[WindsOfDestinyChange just very, very lucky]].

* On ''TheMentalist'' Jane is a skilled cheater though he usually just prefers to use mind tricks to win. In one episode he is banned from a casino for counting cards and later [[spoiler:tricks the murderer into implicating himself by beating him in a poker game. When the guy asks how Jayne did it, Jaynes says "I cheated"]]

* In ''Tracker'' 'Eye of the Storm', Nestov uses his natural alien intelligence to do mathematical analysis and use it to cheat on the game he was playing.

* In a flashback of ''SgtBilko'', the titular character (played by SteveMartin) is known for rigging games and fights. He makes a deal with one of the fighters to take a dive, but his assistant screws up and pays the wrong fighter, who assumes that the payoff means that ''he'' should take a dive. The other guy then assumes that he'll be paid after the fight. The result is both guys circling each other for half an hour, afraid to land a punch. Finally, one of them punches the other out of habit... and both fall down. When Bilko's superior Thorne starts investigating, he finds the payoff in a locker belonging to the second fighter and confronts him about it. Just then the reporters burst into the locker room and take a picture that makes it look like Thorne is the one paying off the fighter.

* ''OceansEleven'' is a heist movie, but more than one person is a cheat. Danny finds Rusty teaching poker to celebrities. As soon as Danny sits down, the two of them rook the kids for a couple grand. Just for fun.

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', Bender is an inveterate gambler, and he has no compunction against cheating. Hell, he even has a cheating unit, though it's prone to malfunction. He's fixed horse races, used [[XRayVision x-ray specs]], stacked decks...

* ''TwentyOne'' is a film entirely about counting cards. They also did that in RealLife. The consequences are exaggerated in the film.

* ''{Leverage}'' features a poker game involving this in the episode The Two Horse Job as the team cheats a corrupt horse owner out of the only horse that he had left after burning down his own stable for the insurance payout.

* {{Gintama}} Played with this trope by having a man gifted with the ability to see the flow of luck.[[spoiler: Which turned out that he lost that ability a few years back and has been cheating at games since then.]]

* TwentyOne is a film entirely about counting cards. They also did that in RealLife. The consequences are exaggerated in the film.
* {{Casino}} was set in [[CaptainObvious a casino]], a few people tried to cheat. The results were unpleasant.
* {{Rounders}} features gambling and two best friends. One is a ProfessionalGambler. The other is a cheat.
* OceansEleven is a heist movie, but more than one person is a cheat. Danny finds Rusty teaching poker to celebrities. As soon as Danny sits down, the two of them rook the kids for a couple grand. Just for fun.
* Brick Top likes to run crooked boxing matches in {{Snatch}}. Turkish doesn't which is the reason people like him. Then he ends up in debt to Brick Top. Unfortunately, Mickey doesn't know how to take a dive. And he ends up betting on himself, reversing the fix.
* [[ThePhantomMenace Qui Gon Jinn]] cheats at dice.
* The Polish film WielkiSzu is a story of a young man who becomes an apprentice to a cheater. It contains a quote that might serve well here "We played fair. You cheated, I cheated, the better man won."

* [[HarryPotter Ludo Bagman]] came up with a [[BlatantLies unique and brand new]] way to cheat. Just don't pay when you lose.
* [[Literature/TimeScout Skeeter Jackson]] loves to gamble, and he's not exactly an angel. After his HeelFaceTurn, he ends up in a beautiful Victorian casino and plays a few rounds of craps to "keep his hand in". After he walks away from the table, he says that he threw three sets of dice and all three were loaded. One with heavy paint, one with a mercury tumbler, the third with shaved edges. The person he's with is astonished and appalled. Then Skeeter sits down to play poker and relates an amusing anecdote about a guy with a device up his sleeve.
* [[AubreyMaturin Jack Aubrey]] plays some whist in the second book of his series. He accuses the people he's playing with of cheating. As one is a SmugSnake, TheGamblingAddict, and a traitor, that's not implausible.
* [[WheelOfTime Mat Cauthon]] occasionally gets accused of cheating. But he [[WindsOfDestinyChange just very, very lucky]].

* One episode of {{Psych}} featured a ProfessionalGambler who got cheated at poker. Shawn then figures out that the game must be rigged, then he figures out how.

* ''{{OnlyFoolsAndHorses}}'':

* [[{{Futurama}} Bender is an inveterate gambler]], and he has no compunction against cheating. Hell, he even has a cheating unit, though it's prone to malfunction. He's fixed horse races, used [[XRayVision x-ray specs]], stacked decks...

-> '''Boycie:''' Where did you get those four bloody aces from?
-> '''Del:''' Same place you got them kings. I knew you was cheating, Boycie.
-> '''Boycie:''' Oh yeah? How?
-> '''Del:''' Because that wasn't the hand that I dealt you.

* ''{{MASH}}'': Klinger gets in a craps game in the back room at Rosie's bar and discovers that the dice are loaded, causing a fight to break out.

Some people TakeAThirdOption. They don't like to lose, and they don't like to gamble. If you cheat, you're not gambling and you're not losing. This is a trope that covers the many different ways people have found to '''not''' gamble.