History Main / LostHimInACardGame

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': In [[Recap/TransformersG1TheGambler "The Gambler"]], Smokescreen uses his stasis-locked Autobot comrades as collateral in a deal with vicious LoanShark Lord Gyconi as part of a bid to eventually free them by winning the jackpot with slot machines. His confidence in wagering his friends is justified due to him [[ParanormalGamblingAdvantage hacking the machines so that he'll always win]], but he still gets greedy and continues playing even when he's won more than enough money to free them. Smokescreen loses all his winnings when his cheating method is disabled, and Gyconi makes the Autobots mind-controlled slaves to fight in his deadly GladiatorGames.

* ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'': This almost happens to Empowered, except the others playing refuse to accept her as a bet due to the 'unwritten rules'- they don't want a superhero team after them just 'cause one idiot tried to use a heroine in a poker game, thanks.

* A ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse with Josè Carioca as the protagonist had him bet his girlfriend Rosita at a billiards match. Rosita, offended it's not a "real" duel, gets back at him and his rival by pretending to dump him for another guy, and when the fake boyfriend gets challenged he uses his right as the challenged to make it a swordfight-and he's a fencing champion.
* This almost happens to ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'', except the others playing refuse to accept her as a bet due to the 'unwritten rules'- they don't want a superhero team after them just 'cause one idiot tried to use a heroine in a poker game, thanks.
* One issue of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic used this in order to make Smithers Homer's servant. Just for the fun, note that this was Mr. Burns' way of [[MeanBoss matching a $5 bet]], because he had used all his [[ZillionDollarBill "pocket change"]] at the laundromat.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'', "Uncle" Duke isn't ''really'' [[HonoraryUncle Zonker's uncle]]. He himself isn't sure of their relationship, but he thinks he recalls winning Zonker in a card game.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': In "The Gambler", Smokescreen uses his stasis-locked Autobot comrades as collateral in a deal with vicious LoanShark Lord Gyconi as part of a bid to eventually free them by winning the jackpot with slot machines. His confidence in wagering his friends is justified due to him [[ParanormalGamblingAdvantage hacking the machines so that he'll always win]], but he still gets greedy and continues playing even when he's won more than enough money to free them. Smokescreen loses all his winnings when his cheating method is disabled, and Gyconi makes the Autobots mind-controlled slaves to fight in his deadly GladiatorGames.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': Grim bets himself and loses in a game of limbo (to gain the soul of a hamster, of all things), however, it ''did'' set the series in motion, so it's not a total loss.
** In the episode “Who Killed Who?”, Grim tells Mandy the story about Old Mrs. Doolin’s place, which is apparently a haunted house, and anything that’s ever gone inside the house’s fence has never returned, including Grim’s dog, Lucky. But upon meeting Mrs. Doolin, Mandy learns that the two actually just have a long-standing rivalry because she’s beaten him in “just about everything”, and that Grim had made the whole story up. How did Lucky really wind up in Mrs. Doolin’s possession? She won him off Grim in a Poker Game.

* On the season 12 ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Children of a Lesser Clod" (the episode where Homer starts a home day care center after breaking his knee in a basketball accident), one of the video clips of how much of a horrible father Homer is to Bart, Lisa, and Maggie shows Homer betting Maggie in a poker game -- and losing her to Moe Szyslak.
** One of the comics ended up with Smithers temporarily being Homer's assistant under similar circumstances.
** In the episode "The Burns and the Bees", Mr. Burns and some other billionaires were reunited for a card game and Burns added Smithers into the pot. Rich Texan said that, since they were betting people, he'd add his basketball team. Despite thinking they're [[TakeThat "hardly worth a Smithers"]], Burns accepted it. And won.
** Burns and Rich Texan once [[AllOrNothing waged all their worldly possessions]] on a scavenger hunt. Once Rich Texan won, he started riding Smithers as if he was another prize. Sure, Smithers' employment contract was more likely to be linked to the power plant rather than Mr. Burns but still...

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' episode "What Colour Is Your Cleansuit?", Billy Quizboy's ArchEnemy, St. Cloud, challenges Billy to a quiz competition, asking him to bet his {{heterosexual life partner|s}} Pete White. (Because Pete is an albino, and St. Cloud collects those.) Billy accepts without hesitation, much to Pete's annoyance. [[spoiler:He wins.]]

** In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Anakin and his mother Shmi were slaves whose prior owner, Gardulla the Hutt, lost them betting on podraces to Watto, and Anakin wins his freedom after another podrace. And whether it was Anakin or his mother was decided by a [[CallARabbitASmeerp chance cube]] throw. The Jedi didn't exactly leave it to chance, though...
** Anakin and his mother were originally owned by a Hutt named Gardulla who won them by ''cheating'' in this game (and Gardulla tended to cheat at sabacc ''a lot''). Watto won them from her by betting on another pod race, and he was known to cheat too; the dice cube he used in that previous example was ''loaded'', according to some sources. (Still, [[EvenEvilHasStandards at least he wasn't as cruel as the Hutts tended to be.]])

*** In ''Film/{{Solo}}'', we see exactly how Han wins the ship from Lando. Han needed the Millennium Falcon for a job, so he played a few rounds of Sabacc with Lando, constantly upping the stakes until he bets the Falcon. [[spoiler:However, Han loses because Lando was cheating, but Lando agrees to work with them anyways. After the job was finished, they had a rematch, but Han steals the cards up Lando's sleeve first. This time,]] Han wins the ship fair and square.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa'' Timon bet Pumbaa in a poker game, and lost him to the owner of a meat processing plant.

[[caption-width-right:260:Never ask the [[ChaoticEvil Church of]] [[TheTrickster Loki]] to babysit.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' episode "What Colour Is Your Cleansuit?", Billy Quizboy's ArchEnemy, St. Cloud, challenges Billy to a quiz competition, asking him to bet his [[HeterosexualLifePartners heterosexual life partner]] Pete White. (Because Pete is an albino, and St. Cloud collects those.) Billy accepts without hesitation, much to Pete's annoyance. [[spoiler: He wins.]]

[[folder:Film -- Animation]

* Mr. Ping, adoptive father of the protagonist of 'Francise/KungFuPanda', is the owner of a noodle restaurant, which he owns by family inheritance. Said business was acquired generations ago when one of his ancestors won a bet on a game of mahjong.

[[/folder]]

* Used as a punchline in ''Creator/AbbottAndCostello meet the Mummy:''

* In ''Anime/{{Jewelpet 2009}}'', the BigBad Dian sets up the Jewel Games where he bets several powerful Jewelpets for the heroes to recover. In exchange, he demands that the main heroine, Rinko, bet herself, as she is the only one capable of wielding the Jewel Stick, which he needs to complete his plans. [[spoiler:He wins her in episode 45, but she escapes one episode later without him managing to carry out his intention.]]

* In ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', the SOS Brigade are challenged to play a game against the computer club. The computer club wants to win back a computer Haruhi stole and offers three more computers should she win. Haruhi offers [[ArtificialHuman Yuki]] to balance out the bet, equating her with the three computers. When the computer club are shocked, she offers Mikuru and then herself. This last provokes panic, so in the end only their computer is wagered.
* Fairly standard in ''Anime/NoGameNoLife'': war and violence are forbidden by divine edict, so ''any'' conflict must be settled via an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame. At one point, an entire species is bet.

* In the backstory of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13259895/1/A-Strange-Engagement A Strange Engagement]]'', [[ProfessionalGambler Stan Pines]] entered a [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame High Stakes Poker Game]] involving [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Bill Cipher]], [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls HIM]], [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack Aku]], WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom, [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]], [[WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy Grim]], and [[LightNovel/HighSchoolDxd Sirzechs Lucifer]]. During the game, the topic of families came up, which eventually led to all of the [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy drunken]] players betting marriage contacts involving their respective kids (and in Stan's case, his newly born Great-Niece and Nephew). [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu Stan won the contracts (among other riches)]], forcing Dipper and Mabel in the present to enter a [[MagicallyBindingContract Magically Bound]] ArrangedMarriage with several children of the Underworld.

* In the ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' quickstart, one of the characters won an NPC ally this way (said NPC bet himself, and expects to be free after three tasks). [[spoiler: Later on, the [=PCs=] have the option of trying to win back one (or possibly more, if things go badly enough) of their souls like this. Betting the NPC is listed as a way to get the opponent to bet said soul, but dings [[Main/KarmaMeter Wisdom]].]]

* In ''Literature/{{Declare}}'' by the same author, the protagonist and the traitor Kim Philby gamble for the LoveInterest versus a scroll detailing the secret of eternal life. The game is interrupted, but Philby insists on completing the game when they meet up again in Moscow.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E14WelcomeToTheChumBucketFrankendoodle Welcome to the Chum Bucket]]", Mr. Krabs loses [=SpongeBob=]'s work contract in [[GoKartingWithBowser a poker match with Plankton]]. Plankton tries forcing [=SpongeBob=] to make a Krabby Patty, but only becomes frustrated when [[LazyBum he refuses and drives him crazy with his rebellious attitude]], even after [[BrainTheft he steals his brain and puts it in his robot chef]]. When Plankton finally gives up and gives [=SpongeBob=] back to Mr. Krabs, he admits he [[CheatersNeverProsper cheated]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Mr. Krabs loses [=SpongeBob=]'s work contract in [[GoKartingWithBowser a poker match with Plankton]]. Plankton tries forcing [=SpongeBob=] to make a Krabby Patty, but only becomes frustrated when he refuses, [[BrainTheft even after he steals his brain and puts it in his robot chef]]. When Plankton finally gives up and gives [=SpongeBob=] back to Mr. Krabs, he admits he [[CheatersNeverProsper cheated]].

* According to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilber_Hardee the man himself]], Wilber Hardee; the founder of the Hardee's fast-food chain, reportedly lost control of the chain to the partnership of Leonard Rawls and Jim Gardner[[note]]Gardner would eventually become the chain's vice-president but left to pursue a political career, serving one term as a Republican Congressman from 1967-69 and later becoming Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina from 1989-93 while also making three unsuccessful runs for Congress in 1968, 1972 and 1992[[/note]] in a poker game, and upon realizing he lost control sold the remaining Hardee's shares to the Rawls-Gardner partnership.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Mr. Krabs loses [=SpongeBob=]'s work contract in [[GoKartingWithBowser a poker match with Plankton]]. Plankton tries forcing [=SpongeBob=] to make a Krabby Patty, but only becomes frustrated when he refuses. When Plankton finally gives up and gives [=SpongeBob=] back to Mr. Krabs, he admits he cheated.

* ''Little Miss Marker'' by Creator/DamonRunyon (which inspired the Creator/ShirleyTemple film of the same name).

* In Aztec society, apparently betting was such SeriousBusiness that people would occasionally bet themselves into slavery.
* The Roman author Creator/{{Tacitus}} writes about the Germanics that they would not only willingly gamble away their whole property, wife and children, but even themselves.

* In the backstory of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13259895/1/A-Strange-Engagement A Strange Engagement]]'', [[ProfessionalGambler Stan Pines]] entered a [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame High Stakes Poker Game]] involving [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Bill Cipher]], [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Him]], [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack Aku]], WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom, [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]], [[WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy Grim]], and [[LightNovel/HighSchoolDxd Sirzechs Lucifer]]. During the game, the topic of families came up, which eventually led to all of the [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy drunken]] players betting marriage contacts involving their respective kids (and in Stan's case, his newly born Great-Niece and Nephew). [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu Stan won the contracts (among other riches)]], forcing Dipper and Mabel in the present to enter a [[MagicallyBindingContract Magically Bound]] ArrangedMarriage with several children of the Underworld.