# gambling and solitaire **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gambling-and-solitaire/198820 "2003-08-31T16:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gambling-and-solitaire/198820/1 "2003-08-31T16:08:27Z")
Do casinos really offer solitaire as a gambling game? Are the rules any different than the Microsoft version? How is betting done? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gambling-and-solitaire/198820/2 "2003-08-31T16:10:29Z")
I believe you buy the deck for $52, then get back $5 for every card played in the four piles. It’s probably got about the worst odds of any game except maybe the slots. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gambling-and-solitaire/198820/3 "2003-08-31T16:32:42Z")
I’ve seen it available at some _online_ casinos, with payoff rules as **Chefguy** says (although you can buy in for $5.20, and multiples of $52, as well). I can’t imagine your odds are very good. I’ve never seen it at a brick-and-mortar casino, and kind of doubt it would. While the house would definitely have a nice edge, each game would go waaaay to slowly for them to take up valuable casino space with it. One card game that _has_ been turned into a real-life casino game is that old kids card game, War. Yes, many casinos have Casino War now. Place your bet, you get a card, they get a card, higher card wins. If the cards are the same, the player may surrender or they go to war, and the player puts out a second bet equal to the first one. If the player wins the ‘war’, he wins 1-to-1 on the war wager only, but if the casino wins, they get both bets. This is where the house gets its advantage. A game for people who really don’t wanna think, but the slots are too noisy for them. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gambling-and-solitaire/198820/4 "2003-08-31T21:11:51Z")
I remember one of my mother’s friends telling her about playing solitaitre at a casino back in the 70’s. It played like the Microsoft version but you have to set the options to “draw one” and “vegas style” allowing you to only go through the deck once. A lot harder than the standard version. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gambling-and-solitaire/198820/5 "2003-08-31T21:29:07Z")
Although naming varies, I was taught the casino version as “Klondike”. In addition to the rules **Hampshire** gives, there are other restrictions. Given two options of play, e.g., you have 2 black 8s where you can place the red 7, you have to play the leftmost one. I also think if forbids moving cards around, e.g., moving a red 7 off one black 8 onto the other, bring down cards from the suite piles, etc. (I don’t use these in any form of Solitaire.) I was also taught that it was $10 for the deck, $1 back for each card in the suite piles. Note that “casinos” in Las Vegas were considerably less flashy places 50 years when such games might have been available.