Whether you visit land-based venues, play online or at home with friends and family, gambling games are a hugely entertaining social activity.
A night out at a casino or bingo hall is a great way to spend a few hours while logging onto your favourite gambling website is also immense fun.
It is a similar story at home, with gambling games forming the basis for lots of laughs whenever people get together with each other.
Read on as we take a closer look at some of the most popular social gambling games and assess why people love to play them.
Bingo
Playing bingo with friends has historically been a popular social activity for millions of people around the world.
Bingo has been around since the 1500s but didn’t truly crossover into the mainstream until after the Second World War.
It subsequently became the main form of entertainment for working-class people, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom.
However, a shift in consumer habits towards the 20th century sparked a massive decline in bingo’s fortunes, before technology helped it to boom once again with online bingo sites.
Online bingo has become a worldwide phenomenon, helping to re-establish the game’s popularity and opening it up to an entirely new demographic.
The social element of bingo has played a significant role in its resurgence, with players able to interact with each other via chatrooms.
With the possibility of Virtual Reality (VR) tech being used in the future, bingo looks set to retain its status as a popular social gambling game for many years to come.
Slots
Slot machines are another form of gambling that was popularised during the second half of the 20th century, and they remain in vogue today.
The 1980s were undoubtedly a boom time for the genre, with the progression from mechanical to video tech sparking an explosion in the industry.
Slots became the dominant force in casinos and amusement arcades, accounting for the most significant proportion of their revenues.
Their popularity has not diminished since then, with advancements in tech allowing slots to retain their global appeal.
The increasing prevalence of online slots has played its part in this, with millions of people regularly playing their favourite games on the internet.
This has served to keep slots at the forefront of brick-and-mortar venues, with friends and family often organising nights out at casinos or arcades as a way of socialising.
Whether you dream of winning a big jackpot or simply enjoy the fun element, slots remain one of the best social gambling games around.
Poker
Poker was often viewed as a game played in smoky rooms by crooks, before television coverage and online sites opened it up to the masses.
The successes of Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer at the World Series of Poker in 2003 and 2004 went a long way to changing the public perception of poker.
It quickly became seen as a game that anyone could learn and subsequently led to poker nights’ being staged in homes around the world.
The game is the perfect platform for friends and family to socialise together and can provide hours of fun for minimal financial outlay.
Online poker also has a strong social element, with all the leading sites providing a chat function where players can interact with their opponents.
VR tech could also come into play with poker in the future, allowing people to visit iconic establishments around the world virtually.
The opportunity to interact with other players through VR could fire poker into another stratosphere and cement its status as a popular social game.
High Low
High Low also known as acey-deucy can be played for low stakes, making it a gambling game that is perfect for playing with friends and family.
Everyone who is playing puts a pre-determined stake into the pot. The dealer shuffles a standard deck of cards and places two cards face up in the middle of the table.
Play travels around the table in a clockwise direction, with players able to bet any amount from a quarter up to the amount in the pot.
You must bet at least the minimum stake when it’s your turn to play, and you win if the value of the next card falls between the two cards on the table.
For instance, the dealer places a five and a ten on the table. You bet $1 into a pot with $3 in it. If a six, seven, eight or nine is dealt you take back your $1 and collect $1 from the pot.
If a two to four or jack to ace is the third card, you put you $1 in the pot. If a five or ten is dealt you put $2 in the pot. The three cards are discarded and play moves to the next player.
This continues until someone wins the entire pot. Then everyone puts in the minimum stake again, the deck is shuffled, and play starts with the next player to the left.
Rummy
Traditional rummy is played with a standard 52-card deck and lends itself to being played by a maximum of four players.
The object of this version of the game is to become the first player to create two hands one containing four cards and one containing three.
These must be three or four cards of the same rank or runs which are three or four cards of the same suit in a sequential row.
Each player puts a pre-determined stake in the pot and is dealt seven cards from the deck. The remaining cards are placed face down in the middle with the top card turned over next to it.
The player to the left of the dealer then draws a card from the pile or selects the up-facing card. They must then discard one card from their hand.
If the player is not able to complete two hands, play passes around the table in clockwise direction until someone eventually wins the pot.
You can play dozens of rounds of rummy in a single session, making it a great gambling game to play socially.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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