The best songs about gambling, luck and addiction

Songs about gambling have been around for decades, with Elvis Presley immortalizing Vegas in his "Viva Las Vegas" and Lady Gaga drawing on poker metaphor to talk about love in "Poker Face." The truth is that gambling has been a perpetual and enduring inspiration for songwriters from all over the world, leading to some of the best songs about gambling becoming smashing hits.

If you think you cannot hear words, just ask yourself – can’t you hear Lady Gaga singing "ma-ma-ma-ma" or "mum-mum-mum-mah." You absolutely can, sorry. Today, we take a look at the best songs about gambling, whether they come from the rap, rock, country, or pop genres.

1. Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley

• Theme: The thrill and excitement of Las Vegas
• Year: 1964
• Listen to Viva Las Vegas on Spotify

Elvis Presly is a rock legend in his own right, and if you ask conspiracy theorists musing about his sudden disappearance – he is still very much alive and singing! If you are not an Elvis fan per se, then you surely know him about his ode to Las Vegas, succinctly called "Viva Las Vegas" or "Long Live Las Vegas."

As one of the best songs about gambling, the artist immortalized the city in the popular refrain that blasts all around the world more than 60 years after the song was written and sung:

"Oh, there's blackjack, and poker, and the roulette wheel

A fortune won and lost on every deal

All you need's a strong heart and a nerve of steel

Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas"

With its catchy tune, rhythmic vibe, and memorable lyrics this is one of the very best so far as rock songs about gambling go.

2. Poker Face by Lady Gaga

• Theme: Love as a chance you take
• Year: 2008
• Listen to Poker Face on Spotify

"Ma-ma-ma-ma."

"Mum-mum-mum-mah."

Although Poker Face is not necessarily about gambling, but rather about the vicissitudes of love and the uncertainty the state of falling in love usually brings, Poker Face is one of the most fun songs coached in gambling terms on this list. The lyrics draw ample inspiration from the casino floors, although they suggest a torrid relationship between two lovers.

"I wanna roll with him, a hard pair we will be (hey)

A little gamblin' is fun when you're with me (I love it)

Russian roulette is not the same without a gun

And baby, when it's love, if it's not rough, it isn't fun (fun)"

Lady Gaga’s Poker Face is a timeless hit that is still very much hailed as one of the songs in the genre, and – if you are a gambling man or woman – then it is perhaps one of the catchiest tune you have heard to put gambling front and center, even though it talks about a completely different thing altogether!

3. Ace of Spades by Motörhead

• Theme: Gambling addiction and living on the edge
• Year: 1980
• Listen to Ace of Spades on Spotify

Ace of Spades is one of the clear songs about gambling addiction on this list, as the protagonist struggles with his passion for cards and blackjack, only to realize that they find it difficult to stop. Although the song does not probe this state in as many words, it clearly touches on it.

"The pleasure is to play

Makes no difference what you say

I don't share your greed

The only card I need

Is the Ace of Spades

The Ace of Spades"

Is Lemmy having a good time? He most certainly is. He is not in for the money, he sings, but rather for the fun of playing. You will win some and lose some, the lyrics acknowledge, and even nod to the fact that "gambling’s for fools," but that is alright – "that they way I like it, baby," Lemmy adds.

4. Deuces Are Wild by Aerosmith

1. Theme: Love, love and love
2. Year: 1994
3. Listen to Deuces Are Wild on Spotify

Aerosmith have been singing about love, sex, and being a little wild their entire life, and Deuces Are Wild can be a metaphor about gambling, but it surely looks like Steven Tyler and Jim Vallance were really talking about the ladies.

"I love you 'cause your deuces are wild, girl

Like a double shot of lovin' so fine

I've been lovin' you since you was a child, girl

'Cause you and me is two of a kind"

This rock song may not be immediately about gambling, but it has been immortalized by audiences as what you listen to if you are a gambling person indeed. Much of the song is about the refrain, with Aerosmith focusing on this strange girl’s deuces – and the fact that they are wild.

5. Gamblin’ Man by Lonnie Donegan

• Theme: A picture of the gambler as a risk-taker
• Year: 1957
• Listen to Gamblin’ Man on Spotify

The 1957 hit, Gamblin’ Man by Lonnie Donegan is about what the song makes it out to be. Back when Donegan was singing, gamblers were not necessarily folk heroes, but gambling was somewhat romanticized, and a dab hand at cards was seen as someone to be admired – even if public decorum did not really allow this to be the case.

Well, anyway, Donegan took his song-writing and music and crafted the immortalized portrait of the gambler, a risk-taker and daredevil who did not bad luck put paid to his ambition.

"I've gambled down in Wasington

And I've gambled up in Maine

I'm going down into Georgia

To knock down my last game

I'm a gamblin' man, man, man

I'm a gamblin' man"

The protagonist gambled all over the place, and he is now heading to Georgia for his last game. Yet, there is a plot twist – as he is also in love with a pretty girl he hopes to make an honest woman out of!

6. Luck Be a Lady by Frank Sinatra

• Theme: The fickleness of love and fate and how it resembles gambling
• Year: 1950
• Listen to Luck Be a Lady on Spotify

Frank Sinatra loved singing about the ladies, and he was a passionate gambler himself, so he decided to combine both in Luck Be a Lady, his 1950 song that lives on to this very day! The themes of love and gambling mix and overlap, but Sinatra is truly singing about how luck tends to be elusive when gambling.

"Luck let a gentleman see

How nice a dame you can be

I know the way you've treated other guys you've been with

Luck, be a lady with me"

He compares Lady Luck to a femme fatale who leaves her man at strange times and leaves him worse off something that is "not very nice," Sinatra sings. Yet, Sinatra also uses the song to talk about how love can be difficult to obtain, and how it often relies on forces that are beyond our control.

7. Roll the Dice by Bruce Springsteen

• Theme: The pursuit of happiness
• Year: 1992
• Listen to Roll the Dice on Spotify

There is so much to unpack in Roll the Dice by Bruce Springfield, a song that is ultimately about the pursuit of happiness, and which draws heavily on similes from gambling. Life will often throw challenges at us, and the best way to actually find out what happens next is to roll the dice and hope for the best.

Sure, life will throw some challenges at you, and you may even run into a spot of bad luck, but ultimately this is a song about hope and how you can always recover after experiencing something that puts you down.

"Well I've been a losin' gambler

Just throwin' snake eyes

Love ain't got me downhearted

I know up around the corner lies

My fool's paradise

In just another roll of the dice"

Yet, to get to that fool’s paradise, you would need to keep rolling the dice – no matter what they offer. Happiness is only possible if you try your hand at it.

8. Tumblin’ Dice by The Rolling Stones

• Theme: The unpredictability of life, love and gambling
• Year: 1972
• Listen to Tumblin’ Dice on Spotify

Once again, themes such as love, life and gambling blend seamlessly in one of the most popular songs about gambling performed by none other than the rock’n’roll dinosaurs The Rolling Stones.

"Baby, I can't stay, you got to roll me

And call me the tumbling dice."

The song became an immediate hit and is one of the most cited and fondly remembered tunes by the band, owing much of its success to the fact that it can be easily interpreted in so many different ways and not least, the unpredictability of life, love, and gambling.

With its powerful guitar riffs, deep vocals, and electrifying performance, The Rolling Stones have not only delivered one of the best rock songs about gambling, but also about life as a whole.

9. The Gambler by Kenny Rogers

• Theme: Life and gambling
• Year: 1978
• Listen to The Gambler on Spotify

Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler talks about life and its uncertainties, comparing it to a game of poker, where a good player will read all the cards and opponents’ faces and know what cards to keep, and what to discard. The song focuses on two travelers who hitch a ride in a train cart, with one of them the gambler, who offers to impart his life’s wisdom in exchange for a few sips of whiskey.

"You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run," the song advises, and it can be interpreted in many ways. Of course, there is a bit of arrogance nestled in it, as if life could be navigated as a game of poker – which is in itself filled with doubt and uncertainty, and yet – the song persists as one of the truest tunes about gambling.

10. House of the Rising Sun by The Animals

• Theme: Gambling addiction and gambling harm
• Year: 1964
• Listen to House of the Rising Sun on Spotify

The House of the Rising Sun is one of the most memorable songs about gambling, and the powerful delivery by The Animals is what has further immortalized it. The song goes back to the 18th and 19th century and is derived from folk songs and has been a sort of a century-old reminder about the dangers and downturns of gambling. The lyrics go:

"There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

Dear God, I know I was one."

The song acknowledges the pervasiveness of the gambling industry in those older times and the complete lack of any way to prevent gambling harm. The song also goes to probe the psyche of the gamblers of old times when he or she would only need a trunk, and when a gambler was only happy when they were drunk.

The song’s hero asks mothers to tell their children not to spend their lives in misery and sin as he has done, referring to his unhealthy relationship with gambling.

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