Ever since the delta-blues pioneers started playing their primitive version of rock – the word rock’n’roll wasn’t even invented back then – gambling has been a favourite topic for musicians who strive for an outlaw image. The lyrics about gambling, drinking, violence and women who “walk out the door” is just as important for their heritage as the dirty 12-bar blues form that was fine-tuned to perfection in 1930s Mississippi.

However, blues artists like Robert Johnson didn’t write naive, cheerful tunes we’ve grown used to in this Viva-Las-Vegas world – on the contrary. A blues artist doesn’t view him- or herself as a winner. The glass isn’t even half empty. There’s no whiskey left at all.

Now she is a little queen of spades, and the men will not let her be
Ev'ry time she makes a spread, fair brown, cold chills just run all over me
I'm gon' get me a gamblin' woman, if it's the last thing that I do
Well, a man don't need a woman, fair brown, that he got to give all his money to
Everybody say she got a mojo, now she's been using that stuff
Mmmm, everybody say she got a mojo, cause she's been using that stuff
But she got a way of trimmin' down, fair brown, and I mean it's most too tough
Now, little girl, since I am the king, baby, and you is a queen
Whoo hoo, since I am the king, baby, and you is a queen
Lets us put our heads together, fair brown, then we make our money green”
— Little Queen of Spades by Robert Johnson

Later in music history truckloads of gambling platitudes have been created by artists who simply like to have an aura of a gambler. The best, and perhaps most obvious, example is Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler. I’m not a big fan of this song at all. Kenny views his travel partner as a hero although he’s just a bum on a train. Nevertheless, this song is for some reason always on the lists of best gambling songs ever written.

He said, son, Ive made a life out of readin peoples faces,
And knowin what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.
So if you dont mind my sayin, I can see youre out of aces.
For a taste of your whiskey I’ll give you some advice.”
— The Gambler by Kenny Rogers

It actually took some time for the rawness of gambling songs, or music as a whole, to reappear. In 1977s London (or 1976 New York City for Ramones fans) the punk movement brought back music to its roots. Songs could once again revolve around gambling, drinking and being on the outside looking in rather than being together giving each other flowers shit-faced on acid.

Patriots of the wasteland torching two
hundred years
Dragging my spirit back into the dungeon again
Bring back crucification cry the moral death's head legion
Using steel nails manufactured by the slaves in Asia
You wont fall for that law and order is a baton in the rib
You wont fall for that just like your mummy & your daddy did
Blood inside a fountain pen wrote you out of life again
And who knows any better than to kick and scratch under English weather
From a chain gang to the mill. The mill that sits on top of the hill
The fog drowned towns arr gonna have to fade
The wrong side of the a scissor blade
You wont fall for that law and order is a baton in the rib
You wont fall for that just like your mummy & your daddy did
I'll eat my hat I'm gonna be sick
They own the pack while we play the three card trick
Dont you remember the place
Where we hid the ace?
Yeah not thick but slick
Now we all gotta play the three card trick”
— Three Card Trick by The Clash