There’s nothing like visiting a brick-and-mortar or online casino to get a quick, cheap thrill. Whether it’s Blackjack, Roulette, Slots or a hand of Poker, casino games offer maximum entertainment, but with minimum fuss. Available 24/7 online, you’ll find plenty of choice so even the most ardent casino fan can never get bored. Interestingly, the majority of TV game shows have been inspired by casino games or gambling and here we take a look at some of the most popular games that have been the premise for TV shows.
Slots – Tipping Point
Inspired by penny arcade slot machines, Tipping Point sees contestants win as much money as they can by answering questions correctly and entering tokens into a giant slot machine. At the end of each round, the contestant with the least amount of money is eliminated. In addition to the standard tokens, there are double tokens, which double the contestant’s score, and mystery tokens, which win the contestant a spot prize.
In the final round, the contestant must answer six questions, wagering one to three tokens on each (which increases the difficulty of the question) to gain enough tokens to prise the jackpot counter from the machine and win £10,000. At the end, if the jackpot token is still in the machine, host Ben Shephard will offer the contestant three more tokens, in an all-or-nothing format. If the contestant gambles and still can’t win the jackpot token, they go home empty handed. Or, they can take the money they’ve accrued up until that point, rather than risk the three additional counters.
Roulette – Red or Black
Much like Roulette, Red or Black saw one lucky contestant given the chance to win £1million on a 50/50 gamble – on red or black. No longer televised, each player that was selected had to get through 10 rounds of the show, with the game split into three stages. The first stage was an arena stage, with the most successful contestants going through to stage two: the location stage. This round then whittled the contestants down to a final eight and it was from here that the eight participated in a live final.
The penultimate round saw two players battle to turn sections of a disc either red or black. With eight numbers to choose from, the first player to reveal all four of their coloured sections would go through to the final. In the final, there was a giant modified Roulette wheel, split into 36 sections (18 red and 18 black) and if the finalist could predict the correct final colour (red or black), they would win the £1million jackpot. If they were incorrect, they’d leave empty handed – much like Roulette, it’s a gamble!
Roulette – Wheel of Fortune
Maybe not as Roulette or casino-inspired as the others on this list, but the main lure of the Wheel of Fortune was the large wheel, which displayed values from £150 to £1,000. Contestants had to take it in turns to spin the wheel and guess the letters to the mystery word/s on the wall – much like hangman. Players could only guess consonants, but could also buy vowels using the money they had already accrued to aid their ability to solve the clues. Free spins and spot prizes were also available for players to win – while they were looking to avoid the ‘lose a turn’ or ‘bankrupt’ slots.
The contestant with the most money at the end of the game would go on to play in the final round, where they would need to guess one final word/phrase. Here, they would have to choose five consonants and one vowel and any correct letters would be revealed from the clue. They would then have 15 seconds to guess it and should they be successful, would win the prize (usually money, a car or a holiday).
There are so many TV game shows inspired by casino, so let us know in the comments if we’ve missed your favourite off our list.