07.10.2012

Posted by in Deep Space Nine, Star Trek | 0 Comments

On the rules of Dabo

“The first rule of Dabo is: Watch the wheel, not the girl.” – common 24th century saying

…In working the day job, building sports websites, casino guide sorta sites and the like, BuckBokai naturally spends idle thinking time pondering the rules of Dabo, that game of chance favored by customers at Quark’s Bar.

To wit: Does Dabo in fact have any rules?

This much we do know: Dabo may be categorized both as a wheel-based and a table game, casinically speaking. Each spin of the wheel is wagered upon, but an element of forex trading appears to be involved as well, with each player given options to “buy,” “sell” or “convert.” A big win elicits a Yahtzeesque cry of “Dabo!” from the players.

Clearly, the complexities of Dabo are kept secret by Quark Enterprises Inc., which may or may not own the rights to the game. However, BuckBokai would be shocked if Dabo were purely about chance. After all, there is the matter of the Wadi. Dabo was given some decent airtime in the first-season episode “Move Along Home.” Sure, the Wadi appear to be fairly gambling-centric, but it is said that the Gamma Quadrant denizens visiting Deep Space Nine for first-contact reasons win nearly continuously at Dabo for hours on end. Can any being be so lucky?

BuckBokai thinks not, so to the internet searches we go!

In the Star Trek Online game, Dabo can be played, but this version is essentially a one-armed bandit disguised as a three-tier roulette wheel – right down to the marketing imploring “the only way to win big is to bet big.” Gone are the cards and complexities in a game that the STO wiki itself admits is “basically a conversion mechanism to buy [gold-pressed latinum] for [Energy Credits] at a rate of approximately 1:1.72,” given the expected payout of 88.01%. (See, this is a fracking slot machine!) Online casino sites for US players are rare and far in between so things like this are tolerated.


Star Trek Online | Tips & Tricks: Dabo by game-eXperience

Lame as though this may sound, at least there are rules in the STO version of Dabo. In a Q&A session with fans dating back to 1998 (and still available online!) with luscious Dabo girl Leeta – okay, okay, actress Chase Masterson – answers the question “Are there really rules to Dabo?” with “No … Seriously, no rules! No game, even! I’m gonna make one.”

(For the record, Masterson hasn’t yet created Dabo – at least not one released to the general public. Unless, of course, she had a hand in programming Star Trek Online…)

And … that’s about it. BuckBokai supposes we’ll just have to wait for the spacetime continuum to catch up with us before learning the rules of this insane game. Now to get to work on fizzbin

Watch the table, dammit! The *table*!

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