The short answer is, yes – largely because no one can yet claim space as a territory subject to rules and regulations. Still, space and online casino games don’t often appear in the same sentence.

Unless, of course, you count glamorous sci-fi destinations in Hollywood blockbusters. Who can forget Canto Bight, a casino on the desert world of Cantonica in the Star Wars universe;  or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character testing his implanted memories at a casino on Mars in Total Recall?

Astronaut betting in space

Closer to home, a new space race has emerged as online betting companies and casinos scramble to write themselves into history. Leading the pack into gambling orbit is BetMGM, which got Jared Isaacman, mission commander of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission, to make the first-ever sports bet from outer space in September 2021.

He pledged any winnings to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, with BetMGM donating an additional $25,000.

Now that it is established that gambling in space (and from outer space) is possible and fair game, how do ambitious humans go about setting up their favorite casino table games in space?

Space tourism and gambling

Decades after enterprising gambling entrepreneurs set up casinos on river boats to circumnavigate land-based gambling laws and regulations in the US, gambling establishments like casinos and online sports betting outfits are beginning to look to space as the new frontier.

Science fiction writers and television series such as The Expanse have hinted at the way gambling in space could unfold on Mars and the Moons of Saturn and Jupiter. But just how serious is this fanciful idea?

At the heart of this discussion is the lucrative link between gambling and tourism. Tourism as we understand it, is simply travel for recreation or business. Gambling is one of the most popular ways people are known to enjoy themselves when they are traveling, regardless of whether it is for pleasure or business. 

Who can forget the inimitable James Bond trading risqué banter with well-heeled villains at the craps table or other thrilling live dealer casino games?

Whether you are playing the best online slots headquartered in some exotic location or scouring European coastlines for the best games to play at a casino, travel and gambling have always been inextricably linked.

This is why, when Richard Branson announced his intention to begin testing flights for Virgin Galactic’s ambitious plans to catapult civilians into orbit, gambling establishments and other billionaires sat up, took notice and began to imagine their own futures beyond our dreary atmosphere.

Billionaires in space

Indeed, at the forefront of space tourism are billionaires. And they have been dreaming about traveling to space for a long time. Before we began dreaming up terraformed casinos on the surface of the moon, billionaires like South African Mark Shuttleworth, Richard Branson and Elon Musk have all fashioned their own ways of getting to space for fun.

The International Space Station has been the obvious destination for many. Seven civilians traveled to the ISS between 2001 and 2009, including Shuttleworth.

This came to an end in 2019, but it didn’t stop billionaires from dreaming their galactic dreams. Elon Musk, famed for his ambition to be the first to land on Mars, announced in 2017 that his company SpaceX received a large amount of money to fly two anonymous travelers around the moon.

Another company, Space Adventures Limited, announced a similar project, with a trip around the moon costing $100,000. This is still in development with little more than ambition for sale. 

Less ambitious is Branson’s Virgin Galactic flights, which allow travelers to experience weightlessness through suborbital space flights. Branson’s spacecraft are expected to travel just over 62 miles above the earth to the Karman line, where space begins, with a total flight time of 2,5 hours and around 6 minutes of weightlessness.

So when will we play in space?

Assuming the billionaires meet their targets of slinging civilians around the moon and shoot them off to Mars, it is conceivable that humans may be able to start creating habitable environments in space within the next century.

But before true space tourism can be realized, many hurdles will have to be overcome, from the health implications of weightlessness and the absence of breathable air, to the supply of food, water and other essentials. Then there are the prohibitive travel costs, construction of extra-planetary accommodations and all the necessary infrastructure to support human life.

The obvious start would be to launch and construct floating casinos that orbit the Earth while the rich and brainy cook up ways to colonize the moon, Mars and other reachable planets.

What will we play in space?

It does seem a little redundant to travel into space and risk your life (and life savings) to play games you could play at your nearest land-based (or is it Earth-based?) casino or online from home. 

But if we have to learn how to play casino games for money in space one day, writers and futurists would probably be the best equipped to design those games (at least, based on the tons of Hollywood references and sci-fi novels out there.)

Overcoming gravity would be the most obvious thing to consider, so it would be a smart thing indeed to design games that use weightlessness rather than defy it.

Games like Zero G Roulette and floating dice games would all add to this potentially rarified experience.

Join the space race with Borgata

Until we are able to enjoy gambling in space in relative luxury and while we’re still regulated by our land-based governments, register with Borgata Online to experience the thrill of winning online. On Earth.