Best Gambling Games to Play With (No Fancy Equipment Required)

best gambling games to play with friends

Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on Gambling Nerd are affiliate links. If you use them to sign up or deposit, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These rewards help fund new guides, but they never influence our verdicts. Our recommendations are based on independent research and our own ranking system.

Playing gambling games with friends is a great way to pass the time, especially if your friend group thrives on low-stakes competition.

Poker, blackjack, and craps are all easy-to-set-up games for parties or Saturday nights in with the gang, but we have a few more unique games you might not have considered trying. Keep reading to see our favorite gambling games to play with friends.

Rummy

Before the poker boom, Rummy was among the most popular casino card games. While not as popular as it used to be, rummy games can still be a fun way to spend time with friends.

The rules of Rummy are simple: score more points than your opponents by creating melds of sets and runs. To make a “meld,” you need at least three cards of the same rank, such as trip Kings, or a run, like Jack-Queen-King suited. Cards not included in a meld are subtracted from your final score.

Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Rummy to see if this classic card game is right for you and your friends.

War

War is a popular children’s card game, but Casino War introduces a competitive gambling element to the game. This game is best played with a few players, as each player must get an equal share of the deck at the start of the game.

Players flip cards one at a time, and the highest card wins the round. If there is a tie, the players involved start a “war” to determine the winner. Warring players deal three cards face down and flip the fourth, with the highest card winning the round.

You and your friends wager each round, with the winning player taking the pot. In theory, a two-person Casino War game offers each player a 50-50 chance to win. If you want to get some practice in some online casinos let you play free games like Casino War in demo mode.

Sports Betting Brackets

You’ve probably done a March Madness bracket before, but there are many other brackets you can create to gamble with your friends. All you have to do is plan what sporting event you want to bet on, do some research, and fill out a bracket.

Usually, brackets are most fun during the playoffs, like a bracket for the NBA Finals or MLB World Series. But you can set up weekly or monthly brackets during the regular season by checking the league schedule and correlating the number of games to a bracket.

Each of your friends bets on which team will win each matchup, and at the end of the period, you tally up who had the most wins. It’s super east to put down $5 on a bracket and get a game going in the group chat.

Craps or Street Dice

Craps is a popular game that can involve multiple players, making it ideal for most sized friend groups. Unfortunately, like roulette, most people do not own a craps table.

You and your friends can plan a trip to a casino to play craps together, but this can be cumbersome. The popularity of craps also makes it unlikely that you will find an empty table for you and your friends to enjoy a private game.

Street Dice, however, is an offshoot of craps that requires little set-up and can be loads of fun. It follows some of the same basic principles but has been simplified to reduce the number of wagers involved.

Poker

Poker is one of the most popular types of card games, and it can be a great way to bond with friends. In-person poker games can be a great tradition, but you do not need to invest in a poker table to enjoy these card games.

You can easily enjoy the most popular poker variants with a deck of cards at the kitchen counter. Texas Hold’em is the most popular, but Ohama and Stud games are easy to learn as well. There are no-limit, pot-limit, hi-lo, and many other variations.

Blackjack

Another exciting card gambling game you can enjoy with your friends is blackjack. This is one of the easiest card games to learn and can be played with small and large groups.

Traditional blackjack can be played with a single deck, making it a fantastic option for in-person games. Online blackjack is a great option for multi-deck variations, such as:

  • Perfect Pairs
  • Super 7 blackjack
  • 21+3 blackjack
  • Dragon blackjack
  • Zappit blackjack

Playing blackjack online with friends is easier than ever, thanks to the growing variety of live dealer blackjack games. If you and your friend group have an account at the same casino, you can join the same live dealer table for blackjack.

What Are Your Favorite Gambling Games to Enjoy With Friends?

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to enjoy gambling with your friends. Poker is the most common, but getting together for a rummy or street craps night can certainly be a change of pace. And the best part, you only need some dice or a deck of cards to play.

Sports betting brackets are also a quick and easy way to gamble with your friends, especially if you have a large friend group with an active group chat. Check out some of our other articles about how to gamble from home and online.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Photo of Shaun Stack
About the Author

Shaun Stack, a native of the state of Kansas, has been a lifelong fan of all sports. Shaun has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh Bradford. He has been writing for Gambling Nerd for several years, covering a wide range of topics.