Gambling is not new to the Star Wars universe. There are several places where we see gambling and betting throughout the franchise. It’s something that we’ve written about here before, but it’s also something we likely won’t see as long as Disney holds the rights to new Star Wars content.
While gambling may not be in the spirit of their “family friendly” ideal, it IS and always has been a part of Star Wars. The original movies were intended to be family-friendly, but we still see the casinos for short periods in them.
My guess is that a) standards have changed a bit since the original movies came out and b) Disney’s idea of “family friendly” may be a bit more G-rated than others.
At any rate, there is gambling and betting in Star Wars and we see the Gilded Descent Casino in the first novel, for example. It was also in Star Wars Galaxies (SWG), arguably one of the most popular Star Wars games to date.
We see the city of Canto Bight which is rife with gambling and casino games at its core, in the new film. Rose and Finn travel here and we see glimpse of all the Monte-Carlo type scenes around the room. It’s the glitz and glamour, booze and money you’d expect from Las Vegas.
But it goes even deeper in Star Wars lore. Who can forget how Han Solo won the infamous Millennium Falcon, for example? He won it in a game of Sabaac against Lando Calrissian in Empire Strikes Back.
We also have Pazaak from KOTOR. Pazaak, an ancient game dating back to Old Republic times, was a popular card game in which the goal was to reach 20 without going over, or at least come closer to it than the opponent. The player with the nearest sum to the number 20 won the round, and the player who won three rounds won the match. If in one round the scores of the two players were equal, the round was not counted at all.
In the real world, we can also enjoy some Star Wars gambling through slots. There are a lot of fun Star Wars-themed online slot games you can explore.
In the States, there are only a few places you can gamble legally in person. One of those is the popular Las Vegas. The other is in my own state of New Jersey, at Atlantic City.
However, in recent years, AC has been struggling. In 2013, Gov Christie legalized online gambling in the state, giving people from here more options when it comes to playing their favorite slots and games. If you want to learn more about an online casino in NJ, then you need look no further than the click of a mouse because NJ-Bet has you covered.