While I wouldn’t normally say that gambling games have tended to interest me, there have been numerous surprises I’ve run into over the years that have convinced me to give them a look whenever possible. Whether it has been surprises like what have essentially been casino RPGs featuring multiple games, or newer-age roguelikes like Balatro that have been focused on taking games you know and giving them a ridiculous amount of depth and replayability, there are titles out there that have made the most of a given table game and run with it. Unfortunately, Hot Stakes Casino - American Roulette is not one such game.

You’ll need to excuse my overall description and thoughts on the game being brief, but being honest there simply isn’t much to work with in the first place. You’ll start by choosing your gambler, picking from 4 diverse characters who each have a special skill they’ll be able to use in order to help bring the house to its knees. Once you’ve made your decision you’ll go straight to the table and begin contemplating your bets. You’re free to go as low or high as you like, choosing any bet you like, having the table conveniently show all winning spots to help newcomers understand how things work. From there you’ll just be waiting on the luck of the spin, watching your character’s face up in the corner go through its short idle animation, with the result either being a win or going bust.

There is an added dimension here, but it’s a very limited and honestly quite unreliable one, and that’s your character’s limited-use special power or skill. If you choose to activate it you’ll then go through a random minigame, hoping that first you’ll be successful, and then that the result somehow improves your outcome. You’ll need to put some forethought and strategy into when this will work for any given character, as some bets and situations will be far more likely to bring success than others, but really that’s the extent of everything there is to know. You’ll place your bets, hope for the best, gamble on your special skill a few times, and play until you grab one of the game’s achievements, then inevitably go bust at some point or simply get bored by the repetition of it all. Maybe if you have a real itch for roulette this could be a match made in heaven, but otherwise this likely won’t grab your attention for very long.