How much is the fish?
I bet you expected fishing games but alas, the odds aren't in your favour. We're looking at gambling games. How much do you want to bet you'll like at least one of them?
This week, I went fishing for fun and came up with… coin dozers, card tables, slot machines and more. No rods or reels here, just spinning wheels, stacks of chips and the sweet sound of coins tumbling. I tried my luck with a handful of gambling games and now I’m wondering: how much is the fish, and how much did I spend trying to catch it?
Fortune Paradox
Fortune Paradox is why I decided to share these gambling games with you.
I came across this game on Reddit, and was intrigued by the principle. The concept is straigh-forward: you’re faced with a gamble, and you have to make an educated guesstimate of the mathematical probability and choose the right option… or choose randomly and be incredibly lucky.
Although I’ll admit it’s rather short - just 35 levels to get through - it’s an interesting run. Not replayable beyond 2-3 times, but absolutely worth it for the dopamine of gambling it all away. Or not.
👍 For just a few dollars you can make millions of dollars. It’s just smart investing, really.
I Can't Believe It's Not Gambling
You can take the title to “I Can't Believe It's Not Gambling” quite literally.
It is not gambling, it’s practically and endless loop of unboxing loot boxes.
All that free dopamine, the high of gambling on loot boxes without actually paying anything for them - it’s amazing! Collect all the items, unlock all the achievements and ask yourself: what did you do with your life?
👍 10/10 would open 976876357 boxes again.
The Coin Game
The Coin Game is a coin dozer simulator within a coin dozer simulator simulator. Let me explain.
The whole concept of the game is coin dozers. Coin goes in, hopefully coin and prizes come out. Trade prizes for money, buy more coins.
But around that core concept, there’s a town to be discovered, preferably on your newspaper delivery route, which you only do to make some money to put into coin dozing again.
I’ll be honest: it doesn’t beat the real thing I have in my office /humblebrag but it comes pretty close as far as simulators go.
👍 The best coin dozing game on the market, in my humble, previously quite hyperfixated opinion.
Fruit Stand Fortune
I’ve reviewed Fruit Stand Fortune before, but I can’t make a blog post about gambling games and then not include what was the most addictive slot machine I’ve played this year.
👍 Definitely recommend it, especially as a beginner clicker game.
Balatro
Ahh, last but definitely not least: Balatro.
This might be the only game I would describe as "cards, but it's cards!"
It looks like poker, but it isn’t. It uses the familiar language of poker hands (think: pairs, flushes, full houses) but throws in wild jokers that interact with your hands and each other, and score multipliers that make your brain go “wait, what if I stack it like this…” every few seconds.
Think of it as roguelike poker.
👍 It’s genuinely one of the best games I have ever played. It’s the epitome of “okay, one more game”.
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