History Main / BettingMiniGame

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' has the slots in Serendipity. You can ''technically'' make money 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.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series has multiple venues for western and Japanese gambling games. They are usually not required to play for the main story or substories, but are a big part of OneHundredPercentCompletion. You can also find cheat items in the game world that guarantees godly luck when used.

* ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]]'' lets players bet points in Roulette and play an embedded Slot Machine at various times. The Slot Machine will always give a reward, and even offers chances to turn a losing pull into a win. The reward can include points, a multiball, an extra ball, or a number of other miscellaneous awards. The Roulette is a straighter example: You bet a certain number of points on either red or black, and you gain or lose that many points based on the color the ball lands on. Your score cannot go below 0, however.

** An NPC in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' 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.

* ''VideoGame/DejaVu''

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' game has the Gecko Match in Oasis Town, a dice game with a 5 gem entry fee that could net you up to 500 gems if you win the maximum 5 times in a game and your gecko reaches the top of the pole. However, it could drain your money just as quickly if you're not careful.

->''Remember kids, gambling is good for you!''

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Spelunky}} Spelunky 2]]'' features dice shops. They don't sell the dice. 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 could play forever, you'll roughly break even and get all the items you need. Too bad for you, the [[StalkedByTheBell Ghost]] will eventually come in to haunt you.
** There is a trick to the mini-game, though: if you whip the dice as it's rolling, it will always roll either a 1 or 6. This gives you better odds of gaining something and a 50% chance of rolling a 7. Unless you're incredibly lucky, this is the best method of gaining an invitation to Madame Tusk's palace, which requires rolling three 7's at a particular dice parlor.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Spelunky}} Spelunky 2]]'' features dice shops. They don't sell the dice. 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 could play forever, you'll roughly break even and get all the items you need. Too bad for you, the [[StalkedByTheBell Ghost]] will eventually come in to haunt you.

* 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/FinalFantasyXIII2'' 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.

* ''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. [[CreatorBacklash Jick hates the MMG]], and would love to remove it -- the worst addicts have actually committed credit card fraud -- but knows that if he does, player-run equivalents will pop up about .05 seconds later, with all the trouble that entails. So he settles for giving it FlavorText that tells you how terrible of an idea it is.

* A lot of the ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' games have an arena, in which you make a bet, and then a unit of yours trades blows with an opponent until one of them falls. It's a complete scam, especially since FinalDeath is in full effect.

** 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]].

** The original ''Deja Vu'' title has a slot machine mini-game as well, but it's largely optional.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Spelunky}} Spelunky 2]]'' features dice shops. They don't sell the dice. 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 could0 play forever, you'll roughly break even and get all the items you need. Too bad for you, the [[StalkedByTheBell Ghost]] will eventually come in to haunt you.

* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' features dice shops. They don't sell the dice. 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.

* The casinos in most ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''[=/=]''Dragon Warrior'' games. ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' has either a bug or a deliberate flaw in its casino games; there is one particular bet setup for roulette you could use that would always make a profit.

[[quoteright:256:[-[[VideoGame/DragonQuestV https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DQ5_slots_2551.png]]-] ]]

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** 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.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' the gambling check was so ridiculously easy that you could go to a roulette table, weigh down 2, go for a walk, and return stinkin' rich. In the second town, no less.
** Fallout's spiritual ancestor, ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'', included Vegas and had several casinos.
** ''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.

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* After Blizzard added a random number command to ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', players would often run their own simple betting games in the major cities. This activity was ultimately banned, in part because of how many players were doing it and clogging up the chat window.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona}} 1'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' both have "casino" arcades that let you play slots, video poker, (and in P2) blackjack and bingo for tokens that could be exchanged for powerful gear or special fusion cards. P2 made it especially easy to cheese the games if you spread a rumor that the slots were hot and then completely level up the Pixie persona, since that maxes out its Luck stat. The player then had a good chance of hitting the jackpot in minutes instead of grinding the slots for hours.

* ''VideoGame/FableI'' has ''seven'' tavern games, including blackjack, coin golf, and memory tests. The stakes from one of them will allow the player into a restricted area without needing to fight; exceptionally high scores in six of them are needed to earn a [[spoiler:completely useless doll]] for [[HundredPercentCompletion 100% Completion]]; and one is an easy MoneyGrinding method.

* ''[[VideoGame/FableI Fable]]'' has ''seven'' different tavern games, ranging from blackjack to coin golf and memory tests. The stakes from one of them will allow the player into a restricted area without needing to fight; exceptionally high scores in six of them are needed to earn a [[spoiler:completely useless doll]] for [[HundredPercentCompletion 100% Completion]].

* The PC fighting game ''Bikini Karate Babes'' has an optional BettingMiniGame that you can unlock after beating all the fighters in Arcade Mode. You can wager on each of the battles during a mini-tournament, but the computer controls both combatants in every fight.

* Both ''VideoGame/GoldenSun''-games have had the same betting-minigames. Lucky Dice (dice throwing with hands), Super Lucky Dance (random dice-throwing and betting on if the value would sink or rise) and Coin Throwing (throwing Coins and Lucky Medals into magic fountains to get coins and special items as prizes). Lucky Dice and Coin Throwing were both found in the city of Tolbi in the first Golden Sun. Lucky Dice and Super Lucky Dice were found in the city of Contigo in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and the Coin Throwing Fountain was in Lemuria. Also, the slot machine game with those tickets that you'd get for buying expensive things from the stores.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', 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.

* Casino Night Zone in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' with its slot machines (including one which, if you weren't quick enough, you were doomed to be bounced back into as soon as you were done) and then the Bonus Stage of ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3 Sonic & Knuckles]]'' which was basically the same thing stuck into the perpetual-rotating dimension of ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic 1]]'''s Special Stages.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'', another Rockstar game, includes even more: "Keep-ups" (essentially Hackeysack with a soccerball), and "Penalty Shots", a game where you must smack Constantinos with a soccer ball, and betting on midget wrestling.