The Best Songs about Gamblin’

There’s something about a well-written song that captures the true essence of a subject. Songs about love, heartache, and rejection dominate the singles charts, but once in a while we get a song about other subjects . . . like gambling!

Over the years, there have been hundreds of songs written about gambling, some good and some bad. There are countless songs which make reference to gambling but which in fact have little or nothing to do with it. Some of the worst lyrics ever are borne out of tired gambling clichés (see ACDC’s The Jack, for one example). Or, think about some of the watered-down country music out there. But, for the ones which can express in just a few minutes all of the dazzling highs and the abominable lows, we feel it’s right to pay tribute to them. Here are our all-time favorite songs about gambling.

Blackjack – Ray Charles

“How unlucky can one man be?”

Leave it to the legendary bluesman to perfectly sum up the woes of a degenerate gambler. In the song the character laments the damage caused by his addiction to the game of blackjack. You can almost feel the pain and torment in his voice. Sing it, Ray!

House of the Rising Sun – The Animals

“Now the only thing a gambler man needs
Is a suitcase and the trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Long is when he's on a drunk.”

More about the despair of a prostitute than the dangers of gambling, but it certainly gives us a taste of the activity’s seedy aspects. In the song, a young girl is led astray and finds herself working in a brothel, and the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of her no-good gamblin’ boyfriend.

Luck be a Lady – Frank Sinatra

“A lady never leaves her escort
It isn't fair, it isn't nice
A lady doesn't wander all over the room
And blow on some other guys dice”

The parallels between female companionship and gambling have never been more succinctly expressed than in this staple tune from the fifties. It was written for Sinatra by Broadway composer Frank Loesser. A typical product of this male-dominated era, the main theme of the song is the fleeting nature of luck and how it often behaves like a wayward woman.

Viva Las Vegas - Elvis Presley

“Oh, there's black jack and poker and the roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on ev'ry deal
All you need's a strong heart and a nerve of steel”

This one could be seen as an advertisement for Las Vegas, and it probably was written for that reason. None of the dangers of gambling are mentioned as Vegas croons only about the thrill and excitement that one can find in a Vegas casino. It was written as the title song for Elvis’s 14th feature film of the same name and interestingly didn’t really gain mass appeal until after punk legend Jello Biafra released a cover version with his band The Dead Kennedy’s. Now it’s Las Vegas’s unofficial city anthem.

The Gambler - Kenny Rogers

“Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep”

Probably the most famous gambling song of all time, The Gambler embodies everything both great and terrible about gambling. It’s a conversation between a weathered old gambler and a young man on a train “bound for nowhere”. The song comes to an end rather optimistically with the young man taking the advice of the old vagrant and moving on.

Poker - Electric Light Orchestra

“The ace, that's hiding up your sleeve,
Will cause the world to grieve”

Poker is the title of this one, but it’s really about the struggles that everyone faces in life. The song, written by ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, features some blistering seventies guitar and a lush new-wave synthesizer sound. It’s probably not what Phil Ivey listens to when he wears his head-phones during big tournaments, but it’s still a great gambling song.

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