To be honest, not everyone wants a song blaring in their ear when trying to focus on a game of Blackjack. And of course, even if you do fancy a tune or two to accompany your winning hand, that doesn’t mean to say your fellow gamers will appreciate it.
With that in mind, let’s lay down a few ground rules before we play DJ for you.
- If you’re playing as a group, ensure everyone around the proverbial table is happy to play with music in the background.
- If you’re playing a group game online, don’t have music in the background. If everyone played background music the result would be understandably appalling
- If you’re playing games on a casino found at BonusFinder UK in your own company, ensure you’re sufficiently familiar with a game before sticking on some background tunes. Having your concentration broken by Motörhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’ could cost you real-life cash.
Lady Gaga. Poker Face
This could be one of the most well-known songs about gambling, yet it has absolutely nothing at all to do with it, save the phrase ‘poker face’. In case you don’t know a ‘poker face’ is a common expression that simply means to hide the way your true feelings with a blank expression on your face.
In poker, bluffing is all part of the game, so a ‘poker face’ would be one that didn’t give your fellow players an indication as to the state of your hand. In this song, Lady Gaga is using the phrase to hide her true feelings in moments of intimacy, so let’s just leave that right there and move on.
Abba. Winner Takes it All
With maybe one exception further down the page, this is the best song on this list. Swedish megastars Abba are almost hard-wired to not write a bad pop song, and this is no exception.
But, like the former ditty, this also has absolutely nothing to do with gambling, outside of the line ‘winner takes it all’. Obviously, we’ve all heard ‘winner takes it all’ in context with a betting game, but in this instance, it’s all about a messy divorce. Oh.
The unofficial explanation for the song is that Bjorn wrote the song about his divorce from Agnetha, implying she took him for all he was worth. Somewhat ironically Agnetha had to then sing it out loud in public, which sort of makes things a little more complex than it seems at first glance…
Either way, don’t ever play this when gambling because everyone will start joining in. Having said that, could that work tactically?
Elvis Presley. Viva Las Vegas
Three down on the list and we’re edging closer to an actual song about gambling. And who better than The King himself to eulogise about the joys of playing casino games in Sin City itself?
For added authenticity, ‘Viva Las Vegas’ is the title of a movie in which Elvis himself played ‘Lucky Jackson’, a race-car driver turned hapless gambler. Did we mention that Lucky is also musically gifted which results in much singing?
Anyway, in the end, Lucky wins back the money he lost and finally marries the girl of his dreams. Oh, sorry, spoiler alert.
Kenny Rodgers. The Gambler
Finally, an actual song about Gambling, not that we’d recommend it for a Poker night with your friends unless you want them to leave early, or immediately. The story tells of a man, Rogers obviously, meeting a stranger on a train who then proceeds to furnish Rogers with gambling tips.
To add insult to injury, the song is sold as a pop/country crossover and delivered in a sort of melodic dirge, completely devoid of any emotion. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s the worst song on the page, I’d go much further than that and say it’s one of the worst songs ever recorded.
Rolling Stones. Tumbling Dice
Apparently, this song was inspired by a conversation between the semi-legendry lead singer of one of the world’s most famous bands and his housekeeper. The topic? Shooting craps, of course.
The story goes that it was originally called ‘Good Time Women’, but Mick Jagger couldn’t get past the title on account of writer’s block. Thankfully, the spell was broken via a chat about this popular casino game and the rest, as they say, is history.
Motörhead. The Ace of Spades.
We alluded to it earlier, but really, is there a better song about gambling? While some of the other songs on this list use gambling as a metaphor for something else, this doesn’t.
The Ace of Spades also become somewhat of a signature tune for British heavyweights Motörhead, and for good reason. In typical form, The Ace of Spades pulls no punches, it’s simply about the joys and perils of playing a hand of poker. Pure unadulterated class.
