Comic Book Villains Who Love Gambling
Poker, The Joker and More
In the realm of comic books, superheroes rely on the villain to succeed.
These comic book villains are equally as important as the superheroes we know and love, and the role they play makes the narrative better. Some of the most despised villains have one thing in common: they all enjoy gambling.
You, too, can live out your comic book villain dreams by brushing up on your knowledge of the game. Take a look at one of the various how-to guides online and figure out what makes these super villains tick.
Do you want to know who enjoys a game of chance? Let’s take a look at the most well-known comic celebrities who have gambling written into their character.
The Joker
This villain is Batman’s arch-nemesis, and he is obsessed with gambling to the point of naming himself after a playing card.
The Joker is the most well-known comic book villain of all time, and he was named after the joker card in a deck of cards due to his striking resemblance to the character after he was scarred.
The Joker was Batman’s first foe, back in 1940, and he remains one of the most recognizable characters in any comic book, even featuring in a biopic about himself in 2019. He wasn’t a gambler, but the fact that his name is one of the most recognizable as a villain and that it comes from a deck of cards implies he deserves to be on this list.
Roulette
Roulette is a cunning and clever villain who makes money through a variety of illicit schemes. She is an expert in MMA and can fight with the best of them. Roulette’s alter ego is Veronica Sinclair. She is the owner of ‘The House’ casino and a skilled gambler.
Her casino is a shady establishment where criminals wager on the outcome of fights. Her MO is to kidnap superheroes, often causing conflict. Many of them are killed or left seriously injured. The loser would be drugged, infected with terrible viruses, tortured to death, or electrocuted if they were to lose.
Roulette is astute, and her calculations are spot-on. She catches the whole Justice Society at one point in her career practically.
Chance
This villain, developed by Marvel Comics, was Spiderman’s adversary. This villain has a long history with gambling, to the point where he would only get paid for being a criminal if he performed the assignment assigned to him.
Nicholas Powell was his alter ego, a man who made a career as a professional gambler.
Powell became bored with gambling and became a criminal that anyone could hire. Still, he incorporated gambling into the tasks he took on, which kept him motivated and made him extremely difficult to apprehend.
Two-Face/Harvey Dent
Two-Face is a fictional supervillain who enjoys playing poker. Dent appears in DC Comics comic books as Batman’s enemy.
Harvey Dent, his alter ego, is the District Attorney of Gotham and has a penchant for gambling. For a while, he was Batman’s ally until Sal’ Boss’ Maroni damaged his face with acid.
The acid incident also damaged his mental state, and this is how he came to be known as Two-Face. He was preoccupied with doubles and the number two as a criminal mastermind. Two-offenses Face’s were dependent on the outcome of a coin toss.
His lucky charm was a two-headed silver dollar. He flipped it to see what would happen to his victims. Batman’s attempts to rehabilitate his erstwhile pal were in vain. Harvey Dent is obsessed with the concept of chance, and he continues to commit crimes to establish his point.
The Penguin
Penguin is yet another Batman adversary who has fought the Dark Knight. For a long time, The Penguin has been associated with the Batman plot, indicating his popularity in the series.
Throughout his time as a rival to Batman, Penguin constantly associates with the gambling industry. He owns and operates “The Iceberg Casino,” a floating casino off the coast of Gotham.
The Iceberg Casino became a genuinely essential element in the underbelly of Gotham that Batman fought against for so long since it was utilized as a base for his fellow criminals to hang out, gamble, and drink.
Because The Penguin owns this casino, many awful things have transpired inside it throughout the years; he may be the most famous comic book villain associated with gambling of all time.
Blockbuster
While Blockbuster may appear to be your typical brick-style criminal, he grew to monster proportions using a super-steroid to battle superheroes. He’s busy running his gambling business when he’s not doing that. The Marcus Casino is his property.
Blockbuster is spotted playing some of his games at one time. He is enamored with his casino’s house edge and the enormous revenues it generates.
The Gambler
This supervillain was a member of the DC Comics Universe. Stephen Sharpe III and Stephen Sharpe V, his alter egos, first appeared against Green Lantern, and they come from a long history of gamblers. He took the name to honor his grandfather and quickly became involved in crime. The Gambler was an expert at disguising himself and using pistols and knives.
His gambling experience was full of thrills and spills. He won a gambling vessel and then lost all of his money in a Las Vegas casino. Gambler once provoked the horses to gallop toward the people at a horse race.
Comic villains are the fictional embodiment of ‘the name says it all.’ These characters all have three things in common, their hate for the good guy, their passion for wreaking havoc, and their love for a game of chance.