Gambling is popular in real life and, despite its controversial reputation, has been featured numerous times in Star Trek. While many of the games featured in the long-running franchise are games we know and play together, the series also included unique and fictional games, many of which we’ve love to play! So take a look at some below:
Dabo
Dabo is arguably one of the biggest games featured in the Star Trek franchise. The roulette-style game was developed by Ferengi and, according to Quark, is simple. The game is composed of a wheel and, although this hasn’t yet been confirmed, it seems players are required to match symbols to make wins. When you win, it’s customary to shout out “Dabo!” What’s more, Dabo games generally feature attractive women referred to as Dabo Girls who act as croupiers and are known to distract players from the wheel, particularly at Quark’s bar on the Deep Space Nine space station.
T’Sang
T’Sang is a game developed by Klingons which is played with a pentagonal board placed on the floor. When playing, croupiers take bets and players are required to place markers and tokens on the board before rolling dice to determine the outcome of the game. T’Sang featured prominently in Star Trek: Discovery when Klingon Voq played it at the Orion embassy outpost to gain the trust of other Klingons.
T’Sang is closely related to the Craps, one of the most popular games played at casinos, online and offline, as reported by casinostoplay.com.
Chula
Chula is a game played by the Wadi. The game consists of an abstract board and consists of a primary player who plays externally on an inverted pyramid-shaped stacked board with small figurines that represent internal players. All other users play internally where they are transported into a virtual world generated by the game - these players are then represented externally by figurines.
Strangely enough, new players are not told the rules of the game and are encouraged to learn as they play. The primary player decides what paths are available to internal players and what challenges they face via a dice and control panel on the board. The primary player makes wagers on the outcome of various events and challenges while internal players are required to complete these challenges to progress through the game. The goal of the game is to get at least one person to the shap or “home”.
Tongo
Tongo is another Ferengi game of chance which combines card play and roulette. The goal of Tongo is to win by amassing as much wealth as possible. Tongo features two to eight players and users are required to either confront, evade, retreat or acquire on their turns. Each action has a risk attached, a buy amount, and a sell amount, adding or subtracting to each players’ overall wealth. Like with Dabo, Tongo was regularly available at Quark’s bar and played by the inhabitants of the Deep Space Nine space station.
