Casino card game rules

(Above is the set up for the card game Casino)

Card Game Rules

Casino is a classic card game for 2 to 4 people and is played with a standard 52 card deck. The objective of Casino is to be the first player to win 21 points.

For more classic card games, check out our guides for Spit and Snap.

If you are looking for cards to play Casino with, check out a standard deck here or check out one of our newest arrivals here.

Set Up

Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be selected. To do so, players must choose a random card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with repeated drawings. The dealer then deals two cards to their opponents, two cards to the middle, and two cards to themselves. They do this twice so that everybody has four cards. The four middle cards are faced up. The remaining deck forms the stock.

How to Play

Players win cards by matching cards in the middle with cards from their hands. This can be done in 3 ways.

Pairing: The simplest way is to pair up a card in the middle with a card in your hand.

Building: Players can also match cards by building them. To build a card, a player can combine a card from their hand with a card in the middle only if the resulting combination matches another card in their hand. For example, if a player has a 5 and a 2 in their hand and there is a 3 in the middle, a player can play their 2 on the 3 and say that they are building 5. The other players then have an opportunity to either take the built 5 or to continue adding cards to the middle. If the other players can't do so, then on the original player's next turn, they may pair up their 5 with the 2 and the 3.

Calling: Players can also match cards by calling them. To call a card a player can leave a pair in the middle if they another card on the same kind in their hand. For example, if a player has two 5s in their hand and there is a 5 in the middle, a player can place one of their 5s onto the middle 5 and say they are calling 5. The other players then have an opportunity to to take the called 5 if they have a 5 in their hand. If they don't, then on the original players next turn, they may use their other 5 to take the two middle 5s.

In Casino, Aces are worth 1.

Faces cards are not worth anything and must be matched by simple pairing.

If a player cannot cannot match any cards, they must place one of their cards in the middle.

If a player runs out of cards in their hand, they must wait until all players have run out of cards in their hands before the dealer can deal out four more cards to everyone.

Scoring

Points are scored in the following ways:

Winning the most cards is 3 points.

Winning the most spades is 1 point.

Winning the 10 of Diamonds, called the Big Casino, is 2 points.

Winning the 2 of Spades, called the Little Casino, is 1 point.

Aces are worth 1 point each.

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For more information about Casino, check out Pagat's article here.

Looking for more card games to play?  Check out this article:

40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions

About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company thisisnl.nl You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.

Last update date: 08/30/20