From Console to Casino, Exploring Gambling Elements in Video Game-Based TV Shows
Last updated: June 5, 2025
The convergence of video games and television has ushered in a fresh wave of storytelling, where the thrill of gameplay meets the drama of the small screen. One particularly intriguing development is the rise of gambling themes within video game-inspired TV series, an evolution that reflects not only game mechanics but also deeper cultural fascinations with risk, reward, and power.
"Bet": A High-Stakes Adaptation
One of the most notable recent examples is Bet, a 2025 Canadian teen drama series loosely based on the Japanese manga Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler, which also inspired a video game adaptation in 2018. Set in the elite halls of St. Dominic’s Prep, the series follows Yumeko Kawamoto, a transfer student who disrupts the school’s rigid social hierarchy through high-stakes gambling.
The show positions gambling not merely as a vice or habit, but as a tool for strategic ascension and social commentary. It cleverly mirrors many video game dynamics—where characters level up, challenge bosses, and manipulate in-game economies through calculated risk.
Interactive Storytelling & Gambling Mechanics
Interactive television has also begun to weave gambling-style decision-making into its structure. Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, for example, allows viewers to choose how the story unfolds, simulating the chance-driven logic of gambling. Each choice, however small, carries a sense of weight, consequence, and anticipation. It’s a structure that mirrors the betting experience itself.
This format is particularly resonant in the gaming world, where decision trees and branching narratives are already commonplace. Shows that mimic this format echo the thrill of taking a chance, much like players do when exploring alternative options through UK bookmakers not on GamStop, which offer unique betting experiences beyond traditional platforms. This parallel underscores how television and online gambling environments increasingly share the same interactive DNA, giving audiences more control, and more risk, than ever before.
Gambling as a Character Trait
Gambling tropes have long been used to shape complex television characters. In House, for instance, Dr Gregory House’s love for poker and betting speaks volumes about his personality, reckless, brilliant, and love for high-stakes problem-solving. His approach to medicine often resembles a gambler’s mindset: all-in or nothing.
This mirrors many gaming narratives where the protagonist is pushed to take strategic risks, often under extreme pressure. The gambler archetype in television increasingly echoes the lone-wolf gamer: calculated, obsessive, and often misunderstood.
The Gaming-Gambling Cross-Pollination
We’re also seeing slot games and gambling apps draw direct inspiration from blockbuster television and gaming franchises. Titles like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead have been adapted into slot machines and mobile games, seamlessly blending television storytelling with gambling dynamics.
This reciprocal relationship demonstrates how deeply intertwined the two worlds have become. Game mechanics feed television plotlines, while show-based branding enhances the appeal of digital gambling products.
Looking Ahead
The rise of gambling themes in video game-based TV series reflects a broader shift in storytelling, one that embraces interactivity, consequence, and psychological tension. From Japanese-inspired dramas to cutting-edge Netflix experiments, today’s shows invite us not only to watch but to engage, decide, and risk, just like in a game, or at a casino table.
As the lines blur between entertainment and experience, one thing is clear: the gamble isn’t just on-screen. It’s woven into the very fabric of how we consume stories in the digital age.
