Many of the biggest video games over the past couple of decades have integrated different aspects of gambling into them. Whether it’s in a Wild West saloon playing poker in Red Dead Redemption or in a post-apocalyptic casino in Fallout: New Vegas, adding a gambling feature to video games can create a whole new game within a game.
Long before people discovered the convenience of playing UK slots from their own living rooms, the likes of Rockstar and Obsidian were creating virtual casinos and card tables of their own.
Gambling mechanics have consistently been a compelling aspect of many video games. Game designers refer to the meaningful choices that these games offer. There’s the possibility of absolute loss where you risk your in-game currency. There’s something new to the gameplay.
GTA San Andreas
The moment that Grand Theft Auto introduced immersive casino gambling opened people’s eyes as to what open-world games could actually offer. Las Venturas was the game’s fictional version of Las Vegas and was one of the best world-building features in PlayStation 2.
The detail in Las Venturas was amazing for its time, being based on real-life locations in Las Vegas like Caesars Palace and The Luxor. Carl Johnson could access three casinos in the game, allowing him to gamble on slot machines, roulette, and card games.
While optional, this was still a key storyline and showed how the power lay in the hands of the people who controlled the tables. The city has a lot of links in the game to criminal organisations.
GTA Online
15 years after the release of San Andreas, Rockstar revisited the iconic concept when the Diamond Casino and Resort opened in GTA Online in July 2019, transforming the game into a casino playground. Visitors with a standard membership can play roulette, blackjack, and Three Card Poker in the gambling area, alongside the Lucky Wheel, Inside Track horse racing betting, and many slot machines.
It took six years after the original launch of the online game in 2013 to roll out the casino offering. The multiplayer element was a game-changer. The Diamond Casino wasn’t just a side area, it was a great addition that refreshed the game for many people.
The addition of the casino heists saw players who had spent hours at those card tables now case them as potential targets. The gambler became the thief.
Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption is another game that was gritty and showed a lot of realities of the real world. Set in the American West, both Red Dead Redemption and its sequel showed how widespread gambling was in all forms of society at that time. It often took place in bars and saloons, usually poker and blackjack being the games of choice. Disputes often erupted over allegations of cheating, sometimes resulting in death.
The violence of what could emerge from a bad hand is what brought gambling in Red Dead above many of its counterparts. In-game, the player can wager on poker, blackjack, arm wrestling, horseshoes, liar’s dice and five finger fillet, and various forms of gambling are required to earn scraps for many of the outfits in the game.
Rockstar knew what it was doing by integrating gambling into the progression system. It knew that it was at the card table that people’s character is often revealed and social codes are often tested.
The poker in Red Dead Redemption 2 especially stands out. The gambling mechanics are historically accurate and pay great attention to detail. Each of the available card games have period-appropriate rules and betting systems in place. Players can earn a reputation as being a skilled gambler, which impacts their interactions with NPCs and opening up different side missions.
The gameplay and setting makes it feel like there’s also a social weight to the gambling mechanics that is hard to achieve.
Fallout: New Vegas
The developers of Fallout: New Vegas knew what Vegas means to people in the modern age. The casinos in the post-apocalyptic world are all about hope, as people within the city try to live life as it was before bombs fell in the game.
The post-nuclear wasteland shows how the Strip casinos are not just a place to make bets, they’re critical for a world that is on the brink of extinction. The fact that slots are still spinning and cards being dealt shows that people will still turn to gambling even in the bleakest of environments. There are six different casinos that people can access in the game, each of which has its own approach and patrons.
The game tracks your success at the tables and doing too well can result in bans from the casinos, which is interesting as most games will reward the consistent winning.
What This Says About Game Design
One of the things that connects all of these games together is that the best gambling mechanics aren’t just the gameplay. It’s also the storytelling and world-building. There’s also the character development.
Casino games are a big inspiration for video games that want to create mini-games. That’s why many of the best-known franchises incorporate these aspects once the audience is of age.
The best video game gambling mechanics tap into something real money gambling offers: the possibility that a single hand or spin can change everything. It’s a powerful concept that sees people holding their breath every time the cards are dealt, the wheel spins and the dice roll.
This is a trend that’s likely to continue with future video games. The much anticipated release of GTA 6 will undoubtedly incorporate some sort of gambling when it comes out before the end of 2026.