Retro Casino Games: Our Top 6 Titles
Many have tried, and many have failed to marry the world of casino gambling and video games together. We’ve had some downright awful attempts at putting the two together, but we’ve also had some innovation as well.
Real money casino gambling on the internet has wiped out the prospect of us ever seeing more releases. Who wants to play for fake chips when it’s so easy to play for real money?
We’ve got casino sites in all different languages, accepting all different currencies with some pretty hot graphics to boot. You can deposit using your credit card, debit card, PayPal and some sites even accept Apply Pay now – bottom line folks… it’s accessible.
But they’ll never take our retro titles away from us and below we’ve raked through the archive and dug out some of our favourite retro casino video games.
Indulge, reminisce, enjoy.
Our Top 6 Retro Casino Themed Video Games
#1 Casino Inc (2003)
Can we class 2003 as retro? Well it was 15 years ago now so we’re having it!
Casino Inc was an absolute classic. It was the casino equivalent of Theme Park. You started out with a pot of cash and a ropey premises on the Vegas strip. Trailer trash clientele would roll in and out causing all sort of problems but they soon lost all their coin and your coffers filled up on the back of their misery you could expand your business, operate multiple premises and work your way towards millionaire status.
Remember it? Used to love it? Well the good news is that it’s still available on Steam. Go on, treat yourself.
#2 Casino Tycoon (2001)
Casino Tycoon was released on December 15th 2001 and was part of that never ending series of Tycoon games we got around the time. We had Rollercoasters, Zoos, Cars, Trains, Pizza, School and god knows what else so why not Casinos as well?!
The game itself was the exact same concept as Casino Inc but the graphics weren’t as good and nowhere near as much effort had gone into development. It was worth a few hours of anyone’s time but nothing more.
Remember, retro means old not good folks.
#3 World Championship Poker (2006)
Speaking of old but not good avid Playstation gamers will no doubt remember World Championship Poker. It combined a tutorial from non-other than the Full Tilt scamster himself Howard Lederer with a career mode in which players could buy in and try to win a range of different high stakes poker tournaments.
Given that, back in 2006, the majority of poker fans were actually playing online for real money you’d think World Championship Poker might have been a total flop (no pun intended, oh well maybe a little) but a year later we were treated to World Championship Poker 2.
A staggering 41% rate this bad boy 2 star or below on Amazon so it might best avoided.
#4 Hollywood Poker (1980)
You want real retro? What about the 1980 Atari classic Hollywood Poker? Who doesn’t love a combo of 2D smut and five-card draw?
Hollywood Poker was not a complex title. You’d have the choice of playing poker vs four different hotties. Players would start with $100 each and every time you masterfully extract that $100 from your opponent she’d lose an item of clothing. Raunchy!
#5 Leisure Suit Larry’s Casino (1998)
Leisure suit Larry was a bit of legend back in the day but even avid fans probably don’t even realise that the slickster had a casino string to his bow.
Released in 1998 you’d run a casino as Larry… well you’d mess about in a casino playing the games and frequenting the gift shop. This one did actually have an option to go online and play with other real humans. In reality it didn’t work all that well but still a nice touch none the less.
#6 Vegas Stakes (1993)
Vegas Stakes was Nintendo’s attempt at a casino simulator. It was first released in 1993 on the SNES and then pushed out in 1995 on the Gameboy.
The premise, like most of these casino video games, was a simple one. You’d start with $1,000 in your pocket and the aim was to run it up as high as possible. At least you could play at different casinos on the Vegas strip in this classic and interact with other punters at the table.
They’ll definitely be an emulator of this one kicking around online if you want to dip your toes back in.