Star Wars: The Last Jedi brings us to the planet Cantonica – the gambling planet. Here lies the Canto Casino and Racetrack (or simply Canto Casino), which is lined with a number of casinos, a racetrack, a hotel, a shopping area, and restaurants.
While there have been a lot of casinos in the galaxy, Canto Casino is touted as the most luxurious, and is a known destination for the intergalactic rich. Canto Casino is very similar to the casino complexes we have in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo – just on a bigger scale. There are a myriad of games that depict what we have in the real world such as slot games such as those we have in Goldenslot.
If you want to know more about gambling in a galaxy far, far away, here are some casino games that we can learn from Star Wars:
Lugjack
Lugjack is a game operated by a coin, and involves three reels, similar to a classic 3-reel slot machine. To win, one will have to get matching symbols. There are also lugjack machines with more than three reels, similar to how we have different types of slot machines.
In a rather comedic scene, droid BB-8 was mistaken for a lugjack machine, and Dobbu Scay was inserting coins in BB-8’s ports.
Sabacc
Sabacc is the Star Wars version of Blackjack. Players have to rely on skill and luck in order to have a hand of cards closest to 23. Corellian Spike is a version of Sabacc where instead of cards, dice were used.
It was through a game of Corellian Spike where Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian. The golden dice in Han Solo’s funeral is the exact pair used in that game, and appeared in many different scenes in The Last Jedi.
Jubilee Wheel game
Popular in other planets in the Star Wars universe is a betting game that involves a spinning giant wheel, where players guess which of 100 numbers the wheel would stop on. This is very similar to our roulette, where we bet where the ball would land on.
Racing
Perhaps not a game that we would find in real-world casinos, but various forms of racing involve heavy gambling activity.
In Canto Bight one such activity is racing fathier – a species of quadrupeds that are also used as mounts. Fathiers are given odds of winning, and those with lower odds have a higher payout because of higher risk. There are also other creatures in other planets that are used for racing such as Umgullian blobs and Odupiendo.
Finally, wagering on Podraces can also count as betting. Pod racing is a high-speed racing activity involving spacecraft reaching speeds of over 700 km/hour. Anakin Skywalker himself was a podracer, and in the Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn actually wagered that Anakin would win, and his victory won his freedom from enslavement.
Other forms of racing in the Star Wars universe are Sun Jammer racing, Sling Racing, and Swoop Racing.
Gambling in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
While Canto Bight’s Canto Casino allows us to see intergalactic gambling on a more detailed level, gambling is actually something that is present in other parts of the Star Wars Universe too. Other casinos in the series include the Reaper’s World’s Balance Casino, Naboo’s Aerie Casino, and Nar Shaddaa’s Vertica Casino.
While casino games and other forms of gambling activity may be called different names, it’s fun to see similarities in Star Wars gambling with casino games that we can play in the real world. Maybe there are even tips and tricks for gambling that you can pick up from Star Wars.