Released over a period of 42 years, the Star Wars space-opera has so far been told across 11 live-action movies, 1 animated movie, 2 animated TV series, as well as 1 live-action TV series, including anthologies but not counting spinoffs. To date it remains one of the best and most widely known of all space dramas, with at least three more confirmed future movies in the pipeline. The franchise kicked off on 25 May 1977 in the US with the limited release of Star Wars (later retroactively retitled to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope). Star Wars was the first instalment, but fourth episode of the Skywalker Saga, of what was to become a trio of Star Wars trilogies.
Its ground-breaking visual effects saw the film open to critical acclaim. The movie quickly became a blockbuster hit, surpassing all others to establish itself as the highest grossing film in the US and fourth highest in the world at the time, grossing $775 million the process. It garnered ten Oscar nominations eventually winning seven. Star Wars also became one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry. Today, Star Wars is considered one of the most significant films in motion picture history and over the years has seen multiple re-releases, each sporting improved CGI effects, newly added and re-edited scenes, remixed soundtracks, as well as altered dialogue.
Whether you grew up a Sci-Fi buff who personally experienced George Lucas’ 1977 original, Star Wars, at a movie theatre near you, or not, you’re bound to know quite a bit about the storyline and characters. However, an often-overlooked fact is many of the best suspense and filled action light-sabre scenes occur in gambling establishments of one kind or another. The story unfolds in gambling establishments ranging from seedy watering holes on semi-lawless backwater planets where patrons of equally dubious backgrounds gambled to the highest end casinos on vast space stations and recreational paradise worlds that catered to the whims of its decadent big-money clientele.
Someday we may even make contact with the Galactic Empire’s citizens because NASA recently announced its Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected an active galaxy that resembles a TIE fighter from Star Wars, somewhat reminiscent of the Tie Advanced 1 model piloted by Darth Vader. Previously astronomers discovered an equally unusual exoplanet that forms part of a double star system very similar to Tatooine, moreover another discovery revealed a volcanically active exomoon reminiscent of Mustafar, the fiery little planet where Anakin embraced the dark side to become Darth Vader.
Gambling also marked our first encounter with one of Star Wars’ more significant social aspects, casinos and gambling became a key facet interwoven into the storyline throughout all the movies. Likewise, the importance of a quality social factor reflects in the popularity of Live Dealer games at online casinos today. Casinos that place emphasis on offering a quality social side adds substantially to their appeal. The ability for members to socialise plays a major role in any online casino’s success as it would in many types of entertainment where you would prefer to play, relax, and perhaps interact with other likeminded players.
Enjoying Social Interaction at Top Online Casinos
The capacity for online casinos to offer several widely accepted secure payment methods, is equally as important as the social aspect. A wide variety of banking methods ensures you have several convenient ways of transferring funds to & from your casino account. Accepting highly secure online payment methods such as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as preferential currency means online casinos like Betchan Casino is global and open to all players, irrespective of their country of residence due to the high levels of anonymity inherent to cryptocurrencies.
Casinos in the Star Wars Universe
Over the years throughout each of the prequels, sequels, anthologies, and TV series, gambling activities served as an essential element to intertwine and tie the plots of the various movies together, allowing betting games to interweave the histories of its various key characters on numerous occasions. The visually imposing Casino Royale on Vorzyd V, actually did not comprise of just one casino it was the name given to a miles long sector that incorporated a huge collection of entertainment facilities, gambling establishments, eateries, games stadia, and best known as the most colossal of its kind, no small feat on a planet that managed to earn itself the name “the Gambler’s World”.
Throughout Star Wars history we see an enormous number of casinos entrenched in the storyline, all central to Star Wars history. The space station The Wheel’s Crimson Casino, its rival space station the Jubilee Wheel, Star Cluster Casino, Balance Casino on Reaper’s World, Iego Casino, Club Vertiga on Nar Shaddaa, Casino Kuari, Daystar Casino, Coruscant Crown Casino on Coruscant, Naboo’s Aerie Casino, and Canto Casino in Canto Bight on Cantonica, each plays its part in fleshing out the Star Wars galaxy, bringing it to life by linking various key plots, main characters, and critical events together.
The Wheel: The Star Wars franchise references gambling as source material on numerous occasions. Despite gambling being broadly outlawed during the era of the Old Republic, it was still widely practiced in many of its various popular forms. In Clone Wars Senator Simon Greyshade enacted a law to legalise gambling throughout the Galactic Republic. Previously Greyshade served as the sixth administrator of The Wheel, a vast space station which at the time was the galaxy’s most opulent gambling resort.
Canto Casino: Canto Casino is in the Old Town sector of Canto Bight, a coastal city that lies on the shores of the galaxy’s biggest artificial ocean. Canto Bight is the capital of the desert world Cantonica, its primary drawcard is the casino district in Old Town which serves as a galactic entertainment hub. Canto Casino, an uber luxurious hotel-resort, is a playground for super-rich tourists mostly made up war-profiteers and successful gamblers. Commonly their legal activities on Cantonica entail gambling on high stakes fathier races as well as ploughing big money into card games. Most importantly, the city and its casino serve as the key staging area for many of The Last Jedi’s spectacular early action scenes which set the pace for the rest of the movie.
Mos Eisley Cantina: In 1977, audiences around the world still remember the awesome impact created by Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker’s visit to Mos Eisley’s Chalmun Spaceport Cantina on the backwater world Tatooine. George Lucas bombarded fans with hordes of different alien races from all corners of the Galactic Empire filling the city’s street marketplaces and eateries as they went about their business.
Obi Wan and Luke’s visit to Chalmun Spaceport Cantina, the spaceport’s most disreputable tavern, came as a direct result of R2D2 playing Princess Leia’s distress message while Luke was repairing it. Chalmun Spaceport Cantina was also where Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon entered the galactic fray when he crossed paths with Obi Wan and Luke.
Mos Eisley was also the place where Obi Wan first stunned audiences with his superb demonstration of a Jedi master’s jaw-dropping power and skill with a lightsabre. That awe-inspiring, abrupt fight scene in the cantina, the lightsabre blade flashing around the darkened interior accompanied by its powerful unearthly humming, left an indelible memory imprinted in the minds of many kids, an imprint which they still carry as middle aged adults. At times, to this day, when no-one is watching, those awe-inspired kids from a movie theatre in 1977 still come out to practice their lightsabre moves, right alongside their equally amazing air-guitar skills.
Mos Eisley Cantina Spinoffs
Strictly speaking, the Chalmun Spaceport Cantina is not a casino, however, its patrons commonly practiced various popular forms of gambling. Mos Eisley Cantina’s smorgasbord of races and activities left room for so many interesting possibilities. It provided the motivating spark that prompted several leading scifi writers to come up with a series of original stories about the cantina, you can read more about it in Star Wars: Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina book review.
Popular Betting Activities in Star Wars
Race Betting: Citizens of both the Old Republic and Galactic Empire engaged in a great many forms of gambling, some legal & some not. The most common racing activities to bet on being pod races, fathier races, Umgullian Blob races, Odupiendo races, Sun Jammer races, Sling races, Swoop racing.
Pod Races: In The Phantom Menace Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn wins Anakin Skywalker’s freedom from the boy’s owner Watto by placing a bet on Anakin to win the Boonta Eve pod race on Tatooine. Gambling forms such a significant part of the galactic culture that even Anakin’s protocol droid, C-3PO, offers the odds on a mission or venture success, or surviving an attack on multiple occasions. The droid’s repeated commentary on the group’s survivability odds eventually prompted Han Solo’s now famous response “Never tell me the odds”.
Betting Games: Similarly, popular games to bet on included Sabacc, Lugjack, Jubilee Wheel, Compmatch, Denebian holo-chess, Imperial Commander, and a vast number of others.
Sabacc: A card game of chance and skill quite similar to Blackjack, where two to eight players try to reach 23, or as close to it as possible without exceeding it. Famously, Han Solo became owner and captain of the Millennium Falcon after winning it from Lando Calrissian in a game of Corellian Spike Sabacc.