Here on planet Earth there are multiple ways to gamble, from visiting a
race track or a casino, whether in Vegas or online at
20Bet. But here we're
looking at how three movies and TV shows have imagined gambling in the far
reaches of outer space.
Dabo (Star Trek)
One of the most famous sci-fi casinos is the one found aboard the space
station Deep Space Nine in the Star Trek show of the same name. Managed by
the devious Quark, the casino hosts the popular roulette-style game Dabo.
Players rarely get lucky at Dabo as Quark is known for rigging the game,
often with distractingly attractive female employees known as "Dabo
girls."
Triad (Battlestar Galactica)
Both the 1970s original and 2000s reboot of Battlestar Galactica featured a
variation of Poker, named Pyramid in the original and Triad in the remake.
The show never explained the rules to the audience but the glimpses we get
suggest it follows the same format as Poker. It's distinguished from the
Earth game by using hexagonal rather than rectangular cards. In the episode
"Six of One," characters are seen playing a variation of Strip Poker with
Triad cards.
Sabacc (Star Wars)
Given how fleshed out the world of Star Wars is, it's no surprise that it
has its own card game. Sabacc features a deck of 76 cards made of four suits
of 15 cards each and 16 special cards. The objective is to amass a hand
closest to 23, but not higher, to win the pot. The most famous game of
Sabacc ever played in Star Wars lore is that which saw Han Solo win the
Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian, as seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story
and referenced in The Empire Strikes Back.