Games

Everything's metallic at Canto Casino!

Your characters have some downtime, and they need a game to play to pass the time. Or maybe they need money, and they're making the very questionable decision to gamble with their last handful of credits. Maybe they're visiting their gran and they're about to get absolutely destroyed by an octogenarian who's been playing cards longer than they've been alive! The question is: which game?

This isn't an exhaustive list, because there are a lot of games in the galaxy far, far away (though few of them have much information). Assume it's used for gambling unless noted otherwise. For sports, see Sports (a page that doesn't exist yet but hopefully will in the future).

Card games

Balaans

Balaans in action! Having the "four" card and the "two" card look almost identical seems like a bad idea to me, but sure.

Concept art for Balaans face cards. Unclear why they have two different "deflect" designs.

• Two players
• 22 cards all up. Two suits (red and black). Each suit has five number cards, and six face cards: a "destroy", a "deflect", a "buff", a "steal" and two "block" cards.
• Players usually have five or six cards in their hand at once. They also have five piles of cards each face-up in front of them, plus a pile face-down that they can pick up from. You can play multiple cards in one turn. Multiple face cards can be the top of the face-up piles at the same time. The face-up piles don't have any apparent restrictions on what can be put in the same pile, as face cards are in the same piles as number cards. (This is, of course, a bit of conjecture since we don't have the ruleset.)
• Having a five, another five, a four, a three and a two in that order is considered a good hand, as spectators of the game Omega plays against an Imperial think that the Imperial putting that second five down (to cover up an unknown face card) is a sign that he's going to win. Unfortunately, it's not as strong as the Three Eastern Stars.
• There's a hand called Three Eastern Stars which is almost unbeatable. It includes three face cards, one of which is the "buff" card, and the three face cards can all be put down at the same time.
• A complete ruleset was developed and playtested. It's apparently "kind of like a combination of Uno and Magic the Gathering". Tragically, we don't have the full rules even though they exist.
• Omega played it in the early Imperial era.

Chambers

• Must have at least three players, and there can be more.
• Two types of deck: a children's deck which has the value of each card written on it, and an adults' deck where you're expected to have already memorised the values.
• Based on the idea of "who would win in a fight if they're trapped in a room together?", with each card being compared to the card on its left. The winner is said to gain a "kill", and whoever has the most kills at the end of three rounds wins. Each player is dealt three cards.
• As well as the person/droid on the card, there are four colours (blue trumping white, red trumping blue, and black trumping red), and three values (Strength, Will, and Chance) associated with each card.
• Faces:
  • Clone Trooper Private (weakest)
  • Clone Trooper Captain
  • Imperial Guardsman
  • Vizier
  • Courtesan (a Red Courtesan has a higher Will value than a Blue Vizier; unclear if a Courtesan always beats a Vizier)
  • Emperor (most powerful)
  • Destroyer Droid (unclear where this sits in the card hierarchy, other than it's less powerful than a Black Emperor)

An example round of four players:

• Red Clone Trooper Captain
• Red Imperial Guardsman (beats Red Clone Trooper Captain and White Clone Trooper Private)
• White Clone Trooper Private
• White Imperial Guardsman (beats White Clone Trooper Private and Red Clone Trooper Captain)

Another example round of four players:

• Blue Vizier (a powerful card, but...)
• Red Courtesan (beats Blue Vizier)
• Black Emperor (beats everything)
• [Forfeit]

In the Legends continuity, the game is specific to the Imperial period; at least some decks were printed with the emblem of the Empire on the other side. It's also played in Imperial Remnants after the establishment of the New Republic. In New Canon, it's available to play at the Canto Bight casino during the New Republic, so it's unclear whether the New Canon version is also themed around the Galactic Empire.

Pazaak

• Two players (501st has a four-player pazaak game, which certainly isn't impossible, but the way the game is described doesn't sound like pazaak at all, so take it with a grain of salt.)
• It's basically a mix of blackjack and a trading card game. Your goal is to get as close to 20 without going over (not 21 like blackjack!).
• There are two decks used in pazaak: there's the main deck, which consists of forty cards: four each of +1 to +10. Individual players will have side decks, which are extra cards you can use. Side deck cards can be ±6, or special cards that affect the value of other cards. You build yourself a side deck by buying cards or stealing them off dead bodies.
• At Canto Casino, the casino must check your side deck before you play.

Side deck

• A side deck can have up to 10 cards. If your side deck is larger than 10, you must select up to 10 cards before the game begins. Because 4 of these cards will be randomly selected at the start of play, you may choose to have fewer than 10 cards to increase your chances of getting specific cards.
• At the beginning of the game, you get 4 randomly selected cards from your side deck. These 4 cards must last for all your sets, as you don't get dealt any replacements. You can place 1 per turn if you want.
• There are 4 types of cards in your side deck:
  1. Positive cards (blue): these operate the same way as the main deck. They add to the combined value of all the face-up cards in front of you. For example, if you have been dealt a 6 on your first turn and 10 on your second, you can use a +4 card to get to 20. This is helpful when you're close enough to 20 that it's risky to ask for another card.
  2. Negative cards (red): these subtract from the combined value of all the face-up cards in front of you. For example, let's say you were dealt a 6 on your first turn and an 8 on your second. You request another card for your third turn, but you're dealt a 10, bringing your total to 24. If you have a -4 card, you can turn that into a 20. Even if playing a negative card will take you under 20, it might be worth it: if you go over 20, you lose the round regardless of your opponent's score. If you bring it back under 20, your opponent might go over on their next turn.
  3. Positive/Negative cards (half blue/half red): these cards can be positive or negative, but you must declare which before you place it down. You can't change your mind on a subsequent turn.
  4. Gold cards: these cards have special effects. They are:
  • • 2&4: This flips the positive or negative sign in front of all cards in play that are worth 2 or 4. For example, if you've been dealt: 2, 8, 4 and 10, your total is now 24. If you play the 2&4 card, your 2 would become -2 and your 4 would become -4, which would bring your total down to 18.
    • 3&6: This works the same as the 2&4 card, but for 3 and 6.
    • 1±2: This card is basically a combination of a ±1 and a ±2. It can have four values, one of which you must declare when putting it down: +1, -1, +2 or -2. It's a handy card that saves space in your deck.
    • D: The D stands for "Double", as this card doubles the value of the last card you got dealt. For example, if you've been dealt a 4, 6 and 5, then you can use the Double card to add another 5, bringing you to a perfect 20.
    • ±1T: This card has multiple functions: as well as being a ±1 card, it also ensures that if you tie with your opponent, you win instead of having to play another set.
• A +6 is considered to be the worst card in a side deck.

How to play

• A game consists of sets:

1. At the beginning of the game, you draw 4 cards at random out of your side deck (which has a maximum of 10 cards) to create your hand. Your opponent does the same. You only get 4 cards from your side deck, even though you might be playing way more than 4 sets.
2. Each player is then dealt a card from the main deck. On your turn, you can choose to play a single card from your hand, end your turn, or stand. "End turn" means you will draw another card on the next turn. "Stand" means you're satisfied with your current total and won't draw (or play) another card until the set is over.
3. If you go over 20, you automatically bust, meaning you lose the set.
4. The goal is to get as close to 20 as possible to win the set, but it becomes risker to ask for another card from the main deck the higher your total goes. You might choose to stand at 18, for instance, in the hope that your opponent goes over 20 and busts on the next turn. If this happens, you would win with an 18.
5. The other way you can win is to have 9 cards in play without going bust. This makes cards with high negative values useful, as it gives you room for more cards without going over 20.
6. The first player to win 3 sets wins.
7. Instead of a win, a set is a tie if:
   1. Both players stand on the same total
   2. Both players bust

Zinbiddle

Zinbiddle hole cards.

Zinbiddle is an incredibly confusing game, which was deliberate. John Jackson Miller invented it for Canto Bight, borrowing the name from West End Games's Riders of the Maelstrom, and six years later he worked out an actual ruleset beyond what he needed to know for the story. JJM's ruleset is technically not canon (and contradicts some parts of the story), so this page will be documenting what we know from the story itself first and then JJM's ruleset. Don't expect all of this to make sense, because it doesn't.

Official information

• The small selection of zinbiddle cards we see in the The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary consist of cards with holes in them designating the value of the cards, from one to six. They come in three different suits: gold, silver and Vermilion. We know there are many more cards in a deck, though.
• Players each build a pyramid of cards. The aim is to build a "straight" along each side of the pyramid. When you've created a straight, you can call "zinbiddle" and win the hand. Creating straights happens separately from building the pyramid; you hold cards in your hand until you have a straight, at which point you say "zinbiddle" and put your cards face-up on the table. While Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter depicts players building a house of cards, "The Ride" has a player revealing the bottom of his pyramid, which implies that the cards making up the pyramid are hidden from other players:
  

"That's it," Kal said, breathless as he exposed his bottom row of cards—the base of his pyramid. The figures and colors traced a beautiful chevron, topped off by a still more beautiful ace.

— Don't try this with a house of cards

A zinbiddle game in progress that involves building a house of cards.

• The likeliest explanation is just that the illustrator for Rose Tico got the wrong end of the stick and it was never meant to involve building a three-dimensional structure. The depiction of the card pyramid in John Jackson Miller's homebrew ruleset confirms that it wasn't intended to involve building a physical house of cards, but that's not official canon, so... the correct version is whatever works best in your story. There's certainly comedy value in the physical house of cards.
• A straight contains four cards of different suits in a particular sequence.
• Multiple decks are used in one game, "with participants drawing additional cards from each depending on special circumstances".
• Some of the cards in zinbiddle have holes in them, which you can presumably see even if you're not the person holding them. Despite this, "The Ride" has one character "overturning his hole cards". Perhaps this just refers to officially placing them down, rather than the usual meaning of revealing them? Who knows! It's unclear if all zinbiddle cards have holes in them — "The Ride" specifically mentions that the bottom row is hole cards, and the homebrew version doesn't indicate that there's a difference between those cards and the rest of the pyramid, though it only ever refers to the bottom row as "hole cards". It's a mystery!
• There are two pots: the regular pot, which you win when you win a hand; and the progressive, which is continuously added to over multiple games until someone gets an Ion Barrage. An Ion Barrage is three interlocking straights, and can only be beaten by an Ion Barrage plus a rare card called the Vermilion Six (a hole card that's got six holes and is vermilion-coloured).
• While calling "zinbiddle" ends the hand (any players to your right don't have the opportunity to put down their hand), the Ion Barrage allows the rest of the players to declare if they have an Ion Barrage plus the Vermilion Six.
• You can buy cards to improve your hand from the dealer and use these cards to replace less useful cards in your pyramid.
• It's possible to count somethingabout the cards during play. What are you counting? John Jackson Miller admits that when Kal is counting in "The Ride", the reader is supposed to assume that the counting is part of a system too complex to understand.
• One of the rules particular to Kuari-style zinbiddle (a variant developed on the cruiseship Kuari Princess) is that there is a single wild card, and when the wild card is used in a hand, it trumps the same hand without the wild card.
• It's possible to play a solitaire version of zinbiddle, though we don't know what that involves.

John Jackson Miller's homebrew

The zinbiddle pyramid.

This is a somewhat simplified version of whatever would be played at Canto Casino; it's designed with the minimum number of cards, whereas the "real" version would have more going on. Miller also admits he never play tested it, but designed it so it can be played with an Uno deck. Chunks of this section are taken verbatim from Miller's explanation on his blog. It's much easier to understand on his blog, because each slide has a relevant diagram.

• A single zinbiddle deck (at least in the homebrew version) consists of 21 cards: five cards numbered 0-4 in four different suits, plus a wild card. In a casino, multiple decks are used in a single game and there are multiple wild cards, but it can be played casually with a single deck with only one wild card.
• To win zinbiddle, a player builds a pyramid on the playing surface in front of them:
  • The bottom row has four cards, and is designated "Thrusters".
  • The next row has three cards, and is designated "Bridge". The middle card in this level is the "pilot".
  • The next row has two cards, and is designated "Gunners".
  • The top row has one card, and is designated "Cannon" AKA "The Big Gun".
• In a casual game, the pilot space is the only one filled at the beginning of the game; it has a card with a '5' on it, representing the number of pilot actions the player can take. In a casino game, the space is empty with a digital counter for the number of actions.
• The cards are dealt to build the ship a deck at a time, with betting and draw rounds in between. Some games never get to the "big gun" fourth deck card.
• The bottom row is dealt face down, but the player can look at them at any time. They cannot be moved except at designated times. (We know that the bottom row is made up of hole cards, which raises questions about how one keeps hole cards secret from other players, given they have very visible holes in them. We never get the answer, unfortunately.)
• For each hand, there are three different opportunities to win ("combats"):
  • The bottom row competes with the other players' bottom rows. The best hand at showdown takes a quarter of the pot.
  • The four cards on the left (one from each row), designated the "port flank", compete with others players' left flank. The best hand at showdown takes a quarter of the pot.
  • The four cards on the right (one from each row), designated the "starboard flank", compete with others players' right flank. The best hand at showdown takes a quarter of the pot.
• If a player wins at least two out of the three of these combats, they get the final quarter of the pot. If each player only wins one, that quarter of the pot carries over to the next round.
• The first and last card on the bottom row each count in two different combats. This is important.

Thruster rankings. The top row is a barrage (the best hand) and each subsequent row is worse than the one above it.

• For the bottom row's combat:
  • The best hand is four fours in four different suits, which is called a "barrage".
  • The second best hand is four fours in the same suit, called a "blaze". (This obviously requires multiple decks in play at once.)
  • Ranked below the blaze is a "busted blaze", where there are three fours in the same suit, plus a four in a different suit.
  • Ranked below that is a hand with four fours, but only two of them are the same suit.
  • The same pattern applies with four of a kind with all threes, twos and ones, but all threes is worse than all fours, etc.
  • If a player is dealt four of a kind, regardless of suits, they can call "zinbiddle" and win the hand instantly. Getting dealt four of a kind is known as a "natural zinbiddle". Notably, they will only win whatever is in the pot at the moment they call, which means it may only be the antes of players to their left. Therefore, being seated immediately to the right of the dealer has a chance to win more money, but risks someone to their left calling zinbiddle and ending the hand before they get dealt any cards.
  • You can't call zinbiddle in subsequent rounds.
  • It's pretty unlikely (unless you're playing with a lot of decks) to get dealt a natural zinbiddle. When it gets to showdown, a three of a kind is worth more than two pairs, which are worth more than a single pair. Higher numbers still rank higher than lower ones.
  • If you don't have four of a kind, then suits don't matter at all.
  • If any of your cards in the bottom row are zeros (known as "misfires") by time the showdown happens, you instantly lose the game. You can buy replacement cards later on, though, so not all is lost if you're dealt a zero initially.
• For the flanks' combat:
  • Instead of four of a kind, on the flanks you're aiming for a "straight", which is four consecutive numbers in sequence. A straight on the flank is called a "port barrage" or a "starboard barrage", depending on which side of the pyramid it is.
  • A straight where one is the top card of the pyramid is the best, whereas a straight where the top card of the pyramid is a four is the worst (because that means that the one is on the thrusters level, which we've already established is weak).
  • The suits follow the same pattern as on the thrusters row: one of each suit is the best, followed by all the same suit, three of the same suit, etc. They only come into play to break ties if the numbers are the same for different players.
  • If you don't have a straight that's one through four, then straights with three cards are the next most valuable, withthe straight that starts with one outranking the others.
  • The order of cards is essential. If it's not dealt to you in number order, then it's not a straight. For example, a hand where you get dealt 2-3-1-4 is not a straight, even though it's got the numbers one through four, because they're out of order. Instead, this would only count as a 2-3 straight.
  • The straight must also start with the capstone/cannon card. A 3-1-2-3 hand doesn't count as a three-card straight, because the first card doesn't start the straight.

The Ion Barrage.

• The Ion Barrage (pictured to the right) can only be beaten by the Ion Barrage where instead of a 1 on the top of the pyramid, it's instead the Vermilion Six.
• If not going for an Ion Barrage, the Vermilion Six acts as a wild card. It can be anywhere in the pyramid, and can substitute in for whatever card is most advantageous in any given combat, even if that's two different values at the same time.
• How to play:
  1. Before any cards are dealt, every player pays an "ante", a set amount of money to be allowed in the game. This goes into the regular pot.
  2. Players can then choose to raise (pay more money into the pot), though they still have no idea what their hands are. If one player raises, the other players must "call" (match the bet) or drop out. If you drop out, you forfeit the initial ante you paid. The house will generally set the amount one raise is and a restriction on the number of times you can raise. For example, let's say the ante is one credit and one raise is 2x ante (two credits). If there's a three-raise limit, then the maximum amount you can raise is six credits, bringing your bet up to eight credits. If there are three players and both the other players call, that would make the maximum pot up to "players x (ante + raiselimit x raise)", 3 x (1 + (3x2)) = 21 credits.
  3. In a casino, players may now choose to make a side bet with the house that their hand is already a "zinbiddle", i.e., four of a kind.
  4. Finally, each player is dealt four cards. If it's four of a kind, they get to say "zinbiddle" and win the hand. If not, play continues.
  5. Players now have the opportunity to make more bets now that they have their first four cards. You don't have to bet, but you do have to match any bets other players make. The bet is 4x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  6. After the bets are done, everyone has an opportunity to make one pilot action. This can be either:
     1. Buy a redraw for a single card, or
     2. Rearrange a row of cards.
  7. A pilot action costs "ante x number of players x the round you're in". So in this case, since the ante is one credit, there's three players and it's the first round, the cost is 3 credits.
  8. You don't have to take the action. You can also choose to save it for later, since you only have four actions.
  9. If you do redraw, the card you drew as a replacement is now placed face up, though the other three cards on your bottom row remain face down.
  10. There is now another betting round. As in the previous one, you don't have to bet any additional money unless someone else raises and you have to match it. The bet is 4x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  11. Everyone now gets dealt two more cards face up, which will go on either side of your pilot card/space, to make up the next row. You're now looking to build the straights on the side of your pyramid; the ideal cards here are two threes.
  12. There is another round of betting. The bet is 8x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  13. Another opportunity for pilot actions. This time, the pilot actions are:
      1. Redrawing one card on either row.
      2. Swapping two adjacent cards on either row (the two cards on each side of the pilot are considered adjacent).
  14. As before, pilot actions cost "ante x number of players x the round you're in". Since we're now in round two, the cost is six credits.
  15. If you didn't take a pilot action last round, you can take two actions this round if you want. You can't take two actions at once, though — you would take your first action, then everyone else can choose to take an action, then you would be able to take your second action.
  16. There is another round of betting. The bet is 8x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  17. The dealer deals the third deck, which is another two cards face up.
  18. More betting! This time, the bet is 16x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  19. Another opportunity for pilot actions. This time again, the pilot actions are:
      1. Redrawing one card on either row.
      2. Swapping two adjacent cards (the two cards on each side of the pilot are considered adjacent).
  20. As before, pilot actions cost "ante x number of players x the round you're in". Since we're now in round three, the cost is nine credits.
  21. More betting! The bet is 16x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  22. Each player is now dealt their capstone card face up.
  23. If someone gets an Ion Barrage at this point, they declare "Ion Barrage" and reveal their bottom row of cards. If someone does this, everyone else has to reveal their bottom row as well. The only way someone can beat a player with an Ion Barrage is with another Ion Barrage capped by the Vermilion Six.
  24. Assuming no one declares an Ion Barrage, there is another round of betting. The bet is 16x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  25. Pilot actions again! This time they cost twelve credits. Everyone should have at least two actions to spend.This time, the options are:
      1. Swapping two cards anywhere.
      2. Redrawing a single card.
  26. One last betting round. This time, the bet is 32x ante, with a three-raise limit.
  27. Now the showdown! Everyone reveals their bottom row of cards, and each flank and the thrusters are scored. The aim is for a straight starting with 1 as the capstone on each side, and four of a kind on the bottom row.
  28. The winner of each flank and the thruster row gets a quarter of the pot. If the same person wins two out of three of those, then they get the last quarter of the pot. If not, the last quarter rolls over to the next game or, if the table closes, it's taken by the house.

Dice games

Dice are also known as "chance cubes", and the terms are used interchangeably.

Hintaro

• The game was developed by Fantasy Flight Games to play in an RPG, and uses FFG's Edge of the Empire/Force and Destiny dice. The two regular dice are the blue/boost dice and the hintaro is the black/setback die. See the table below for conversion to standard dice.
• It is possible to play hintaro with standard 6-sided dice, but there are also (in-universe) dice specifically for hintaro with special symbols on the faces. Some of the faces are blank. (It seems unlikely that they're the exact symbols on the FFG dice, given one of them bears resemblance to the Jedi crest, but who knows!)
• Can have more than two players.
• Each round, each player rolls two dice. In a casino, the house rolls on their behalf, but in recreational play, people roll their own. If they wish, a player can reroll one of their dice, but must then accept the second result. The goal is to roll the same symbols on both dice.
• After every player has rolled, the house (or a single player outside of a casino setting) rolls a special die called the "hintaro", which modifies the results of each player's throw and determines the winner. The person who rolls this dice is called the "hintaron".
• The steps of a round of hintaro:
  1. Pick hintaron: outside of a casino, the hintaron is a role that changes each round, usually moving to the player on the left. Their job is to collect wagers, ensure everyone gets the chance to reroll one die, and roll the hintaro.
  2. Ante in: each player pays the ante (an agreed upon sum paid before the game begins) into the pot (the pool of money to be won).
  3. Roll dice: what it says on the tin. Each player rolls two blue dice (see Blue (player) dice for regular dice conversion).
  4. Wager: each player, beginning at the hintaron's right, may wager an additional amount. The next player must meet the new wager, increase it, or drop out. All players add their new bet to the pot.
  5. Roll again: each player, beginning at the hintaron's left, may choose to reroll one of their dice or leave their results as-is.
  6. Hintaro: The hintaron rolls the hintaro die. Each (Hin) cancels one (Tukar) for every player, and each (Taro) cancels one (Kulro) for every player.
  7. Determine the winner using the Hintaro results table. If your result is not in the table, it means it's not good enough to win. The best rank wins the match and the entire pot. If there's a tie, the pot is split. If no one wins, the pot remains in place for the next round.

Blue (player) dice

Note: blank does not mean you roll again, it means you probably can't win with a dice roll that bad

FFG Symbol	Hintaro name	Regular dice value
[Blank]	[Blank]	1
[Blank]	[Blank]	2
	Tukar	3
	Tukar Kulro	4
	Kulro	5
	Kulro Kulro	6

Black (hintaro) die

Note: blank does not mean you roll again

FFG Symbol	Hintaro name	Regular dice value
[Blank]	[Blank]	1
[Blank]	[Blank]	2
	Hin	3
	Hin	4
	Taro	5
	Taro	6

Hintaro results

1st is the best rank, 4th is the worst

Name	Symbols	Rank
Tukar to Kulro		1st
Quad Kulro		2nd
Tukar Tukar		3rd
Kulro Kulro		4th

Games with minimal information

All of these are used for gambling unless specified. See also Games played at the Canto Bight Casino.

Board games

A cubikahd board mid-game

• Collider — a game where players bet on the movements and types of subatomic particles bouncing around inside an accelerator, which are further randomised by electromagnets. Due to the randomness of the game, the house only has a small advantage, unless they have rigged the accelerators.
• cubikahd/cu'bikad — the spelling depends on the dialect of Mando'a. There were two different versions: one was played with real "short-handled stabbing blades" and a board. This version could be played with four players and the rules were not intuitive enough for a bystander to work them out by observation. The other version was played with a holographic cube divided into grid squares serving as the board, and the players used four holographic knives each to capture the pieces of the other opponents. The holographic version could be played with two players. At the beginning of the game, two knives (one of each colour, denoting that they belong to different players) hover in front of each vertical face of the cube. The hologram cubikahd board could be displayed by an astromech if given the appropriate files. When playing with Sabine Wren, Fenn Rau claimed that "blade to cube face four" was a "showy move". The production crew on the Rebels episode "Imperial Supercommandos" jokingly called it "stabble".

Card games

• Helcos — Two players. Circular cards, competitors play hands whose value is determined by the cards that make it up. Cards include "low-grade power cards", scouts, barons, baronesses, and knights. You can discard cards and be dealt replacements before playing your hand.
• Highland Challenge — Can be played with two players, but it's more interesting to play with more. A "King's Lane" is the best hand of the game, and there are enough cards to make four King's Lanes in one deck. Lesser hands included a Prince's Lane, a Cube and a Triad. It was possible to "challenge" another player before anyone had revealed their hand, but if you had the same hand, the challenge was detrimental to both of you.
• Klikklak — Two players. Played with a standard sabacc deck. Each player gets a single card, and then in the following ten minutes, the players must find out whether their opponent's card is higher or lower than theirs, solely through having a conversation with them. At the end of the ten minutes, each player presses one of the two buttons (higher or lower) in front of them, locking in their answer. The aim is not only to work out what your opponent has, but also to convince your opponent to put the wrong answer for your card. If both players are wrong or both players are right, they have their bets returned to them but minus the house's cut, effectively both losing.
• Savareen whist — four players, in teams of two. As a team, you take "tricks" from your opponents, but you aren't allowed to communicate aloud or by signalling. Relies on memory and compatability with your partner. (Probably a variant of the real-world game whist.)

Dice games

Lando Calrissian playing divot.

• Hazard Toss — played with six-sided dice, which have various geometric symbols on them. Some dice have the same symbol on more than one side. Some dice are silver and some are gold, though it's unclear if that's related to gameplay or just cosmetic. One of the good rolls you can make is called a "cross-cap".
• divot — played with a multitude of dice of different sides and colours. Some dice are blue, some are red, some are yellow and some are orange. The number of faces range from four to twenty. The faces have different symbols made of lines and dots on them. Players are called "casters", and rolling is called "casting". Having multiple dice land on the same symbol is good. You throw at least five dice in one go.
• rykestra — played with at least (?) two 10-sided dice. Dice are rolled onto a rykestra-specific gaming mat. "Sunrise" and "moonrise" are both rolls one can make, with moonrise being worse. A player remarks to Sunshine Dobbs that "It's nearly impossible to roll sunrise in the brother's house," which may refer to part of the game mat? Unclear. Popular in the High Republic era.

Games played at the Canto Bight Casino

Fantafly dice.

Dice games are preferred at Canto Casino, as they're harder to cheat at. Commoners' games like sabacc and pazaak are offered, but they're frowned upon — proper gentlebeings play games like Savareen whist, zinbiddle and uvide. Money must be exchanged for Cantocoins, the local currency of Cantonica, before playing. Blasters are banned in the casino, and security devices constantly sweep for cheating devices.

This list of games largely comes from Smuggler's Guide: Notes from the Underworld, where all the words are capitalised. Other sources such as novels establish that most of them are actually lowercase (except for place names in some games). Uncertain capitalisation will be noted.

• Cards and tiles: horansi, Savareen whist, Chambers, pazaak, Liar's Cut, Desert Draw, Klikklak, Highland Challenge, Zhell Reversal, sabacc (Centran, Empress Teta Preferred variants and Corellian Spike), zinbiddle
• Wheel: jubilee wheel, Spinner-Pit, Greehu wheel, uvide
• Strategy: Shah-tezh, dejarik, Moebius, Triga
• Dice: Chance Toss, Divot, Fantafly, hintaro, Hazard Toss
• Machine Games: Declination, Starcourse, Shronker, Thornen Pyramid, Randomizer Machines
• Sports Betting: Live Fathier racing, Odupiendo racing, Core Circuit Grav-Ball, All-Class Shockboxing, Roon Drainsweeper

Glossary

The definitions for these terms aren't sourced because the resources that define them are frequently predatory. Gambling is a big part of being a scoundrel in Star Wars, but it's a bad idea in real life!

Term	Definition	Example
Ante	A compulsory bet made by all players before a game begins so there's money in the pot.	"Well, the ante's twenty credits."
Back bettor/rider	Someone who isn't playing the game, but bets on someone else's hand.	"I am—as he so put it earlier—a rider. Kal's fate is mine." "Back bettors can't supply cards," Orisha said.
Croupier/dealer	The person who deals cards and supervises bets in a game. The terms "croupier" and "dealer" are interchangeable, but "croupiers" are generally only in casinos, whereas many card games need someone to act as the dealer even if you're playing casually between friends.	"Blassssst," Sunshine said as the credits on the betting map were swept up by the croupier along with the dice. The dealer will then deal each player the same amount of cards they discarded.
The house	The host of a bet (usually a casino)	Due to the unpredictable nature of the collisions, the house enjoyed only a small advantage—where the accelerators weren't rigged[...]
Over/under (or over-under)	(Sports betting) A bet on whether the combined total of the points/goals scored by the two teams will exceed or be less than a specified number.	"The remote vessel captured the moment of the Desolator's reversion from hyperspace in what was to have been a sneak attack on anti-Imperial forces, as well as the insurgents' swift counterstrike, which not only caught the Imperials off-guard but drove the TIE fighter kill count to twenty in a matter of minutes. Cix was relieved that he hadn't wagered on the over–under of forty-five[...]
Pit boss/floor manager	Someone who supervises multiple tables at a casino, keeping order (not running the games themselves).	At two and a half meters—tall even for a Quermian—Vestry was well suited to life as a pit boss. She hovered over the evening shift like a ghoul, piercing yellow eyes the only obvious feature on a shrunken white face. She gestured for a new dealer to attend the table. Now he'd have Vestry sticking her long neck into things more than usual. Bad news, as the floor manager immediately proved.
The pot	The pool of money being gambled for.	"He saw the current bet, flipping a thirty-credit token into the pot, but declined to raise."
Proposition player (shortened to "prop")	An employee of a casino who is paid to play in games that require multiple players when the casino is slow enough that there aren't enough patrons. They gamble their own money and keep what they win, on top of their salary.	Ganzer chuckled. "Ah. You see the badge on the lapel of our good friend Kaljach here? It means he's a proposition player, employed by the casino."
Push	A tie, with neither side winning	If you both guessed right, or both guessed wrong, the game was a push—but the house still took its 10 percent commission, the worst possible outcome. There was some dignity in losing, but when nobody won but the house? Forget Alderaan—that would be a tragedy.
The rake	The amount that the house takes from the bets (can also be a verb).	Then Dodi pushed a large stack onto the instant-win marker, a side bet the casino covered from its rake.
Shoe	A device that holds multiple decks of cards. Often, the cards will be "cut", where something is inserted into the shoe to cut off a section of the deck from being played. This makes it harder to count cards or for the dealer to cheat.	"The automatic shuffler puts the card near the back of the shoe," Thodi said, referring to the long container Minn had dealt from. He gawked. "It's five-hundred-to-one the card would even be in the deck!"
Stand fast (or just "stand")	Refuse to draw an additional card Remain in the game (instead of dropping out)	"Current hand, Round One. Two kills each to Lecersen and Bramsin. Please adjust bets." "Stand fast." Treen fiddled with her cards as if nervous, which Lecersen knew she was not.

Fan resources

• Fanwork · Dejarik for PICO-8 by Chris Natcharian on itch.io. (backup link not available) — an 8-bit version of dejarik playable in your browser
• Fanwork · The Complete Rules for Dejarik by Blake Whitlow on docs.google.com. (backup link not available) — a compilation of fanmade and official rulesets for dejarik
• Fansite · "Sabacc Resources" by Hyperspace Props on Hyperspace Props. (Archived on 2024-09-29) — a collection of rulesets, tutorials and resources created by the community.
• Fanwork · Mandalorian Solitaire by Bruce Wright on itch.io. (backup link not available) — a ruleset for a solitaire game played with a Corellian Spike sabacc deck.