All the Casino Games James Bond Has Ever Played

In whichever way you visualize Bond in your mind’s eye, as a character from the original Ian Fleming novels or as one of the various film incarnations of the secret agent, his trademarks are constant. 007 is always an action hero, an attentive lover, a man who likes his martini ‘shaken not stirred’ As likely as not, he will, at some point in the action, be found in a glamourous casino.

It seems Bond always has time for a game, even when he finds himself in dire circumstances. In the 2006 version of Casino Royale, the Casino scenes are central to the plot. While the game has several players, it all comes down to him beating the movie’s villain, Le Chiffre.

What games does he actually play, and which is his favourite? You can find a great selection of the casino games at Time2Play and you try them out online. Games include Blackjack, Poker, Baccarat and Roulette. How many of them does Bond tick off?

Baccarat chemin-de-fer

 Chemin de Fer is Secret Agent 007’s game of choice. He is seen playing it in many films, and the original Ian Fleming novel even has the rules of the game for readers who are unfamiliar with them.

This is a French card game mainly played in Europe and Latin America. There are up to twelve players around a kidney-shaped table, the aim of the game is to get a score of 9 with either two or three cards. The modern game of Baccarat is based on it.

This is the game that you will most likely see Bond playing. It features in Dr No (1962), Thunderball (1965), Casino Royale (1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Golden Eye (1995).

The Bond actors who are seen playing it are Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan.

When Daniel Craig played Bond in the 2006 version of Casino Royale, he was playing a different game.

Texas Hold ‘em Poker

This is featured in the 2006 Bond film, Casino Royale. Chemin de Fer was updated due to Poker’s popularity at the time.

This version of poker sees each player dealt two cards face down and five community cards placed face up, first three, then one and a final one. The players need to make the best five card poker hand from any of the seven available and bets are laid.

In Casino Royale, Bond does eventually beat Le Chiffre by calling his bluff, but not until after he has recovered from being poisoned by his opponent.

Gin Rummy 

This classic game of rummy is played by Sean Connery’s Bond in the 1964 film Goldfinger. The bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger is on a winning streak, because he is cheating with the help of his assistant using a pair of binoculars and a radio transmitter. Bond’s task is to disrupt the game. As the object of gin rummy is to reach an agreed number of points before your opponent does, he doesn’t have time to hang around.

Craps

Diamonds are Forever (1971) is set in Las Vegas featuring Sean Connery as Bond. Craps is the featured game. Two dice are thrown with players either betting against each other or against the bank. In the casino 007 has Plenty O’Toole at his side and is seen dominating the competition at the table.

Sic Bo

This less familiar dice game is played by Roger Moore as 007 in a Macau Casino in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). A game of chance where you place your bets and three dice are thrown. It is played at a table like a Roulette one. In this film a golden bullet is passed via a cigarette box along one of the betting tables.

 

Backgammon

With Moore as 007 the 1989 Bond movie Octopussy we see him engaged in this ancient game. Up against the villain Kamal Kahn’s loaded dice things aren’t looking good for him. He needs to throw double six to win. At this point he calls ‘Players Privilege’ allowing him to swap one of his dice with his opponent. Kahn cannot object without revealing the deception and Bond proceeds to win. Don’t try this is real life as this is a fictitious rule – although dice can be switched between games.

 

Blackjack

Also known as 21, Blackjack makes its appearance in Timothy Dalton’s second outing as Bond in Licence to Kill (1989). He asks for a private table where he goes on to win a quarter of a million much to the displeasure of the owner, drug dealer Franz Sanchez.

The aim of the game is simple to beat the dealer by getting as close to twenty-one with your cards as possible. Sounds simple, but it can be tricky.

That’s all the games featured in the official films. There is one unofficial title, the 1983 Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery’s final outing as the secret agent pitched against Maximillian Largo in Domination.

Featuring only in novels, Fleming’s Moonraker includes a scene where Bridge is played. John Gardner’s Role of Honour sees Bond at the Roulette table and strategizing at Mah-jong in Raymond Benson’s Zero Minus Ten.