Non-gambling games transformed into gambling game

I bought Monopoly Deal, the card game as a gift. I have no idea if it could be a good gambling game, and other than winning, what you might be able to bet on. Have you turned some non-traditional non-betting games into betting games? If so, what rules did you come up with? What worked and didn't work?

I came up with one for Jigsaw puzzles. You bet on whether you can find the next piece within a time limit. Never tried it.

I’ve often wondered if Yahtzee could be turned into a gambling game. It has that element of player choices made on intuition / estimation of probability.

It sounds like the rules will be wildly different for player vs player games than for player vs bank games.

Off the top of my head, Set comes to mind. Each player buys in for 81/(n players) money, then collects 1 money from the kitty for each card at the end of the play. Leftovers seed the kitty for the next game.
This would sadly negate one of the most amusing aspects of the game, which is outsiders walking by, declaring a Set, and scampering off with the cards they've captured.

I think something similar would work for Hearts or Spades, but I'm not sure what the usual conventions are for those games.

Quote: JimRockford

I’ve often wondered if Yahtzee could be turned into a gambling game. It has that element of player choices made on intuition / estimation of probability.
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I tried making a house banked game from monopoly deal cards around a year ago. Basically you get dealt a few cards and have the opportunity to buy more, sell/mortgage (kind of like a surrender in blackjack), and trade in cards (in lieu of buying them). You were trying to make sets, with better payouts for having more properties and even better payouts if you had the house and/or hotel card in your hand. It took buying a few different decks to get a working deck (had to omit a bunch of the cards). It was fun, played reasonably well, although players struggled with not knowing what cards are in the modified deck.

Quote: JimRockford

I’ve often wondered if Yahtzee could be turned into a gambling game. It has that element of player choices made on intuition / estimation of probability.
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I expect that Yahtzee is naturally suited to "penny a point" style gambling, similar to rummy, cribbage, or sheepshead.

I think this is technically just a progressive jackpot quintuple-row slot machine with the Yahtzee brand slapped onto it, in order to help it stand out and appeal to people who like Yahtzee and maybe grew up playing it, and not necessarily an innovation on the original gameplay.

A more egregious example of this type of casino marketing might be Super Fun 21. That game is the complete opposite of fun, and one can barely even call it a Blackjack variant.

Quote: rxwine

I bought Monopoly Deal, the card game as a gift.
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I have the Blue version last year. (still unopened)
but reviews says the Green version is better because bigger font size

I recently learned that the board game Life has a built-in gambling aspect to it. On every turn you can bet on what number you think will come up when a player spins the wheel. I never played it with that rule as a kid, but I think it might be only certain editions have that feature.

Quote: TigerWu

I recently learned that the board game Life has a built-in gambling aspect to it. On every turn you can bet on what number you think will come up when a player spins the wheel. I never played it with that rule as a kid, but I think it might be only certain editions have that feature.
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You can do that on any game similar to that. (Ie: dice)

Quote: TigerWu

I recently learned that the board game Life has a built-in gambling aspect to it. On every turn you can bet on what number you think will come up when a player spins the wheel. I never played it with that rule as a kid, but I think it might be only certain editions have that feature.
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Is this the "Spin to Win" feature of the electronic banking variant?
(Is this an unofficial local rule variant?)