DABO!!! The name of the game in this video, literally.
This game is one of several gambling games that are played all throughout the Alpha and
probably Beta quadrants. The game was created by the Ferengi, no surprises there and Dabo
tables were located in almost any recreational establishment that had a passing connection
to them, however it was not limited to just a Ferengi game.
I feel I should put a disclaimer here that this is a fictional game, with fictional currency
but gambling is a very real thing and laws on it differ worldwide. It can be a fun and
frivolous pastime, but equally there are very real issues around it which cause a myriad
of problems. Also, don’t forget, Federation citizens don’t have to worry about living
expenses, unlike real people. With that said, let’s take a look at the game.
In essence, a game of Dabo was similar to roulette in that a wager was made prior to
seeing results of a spinning wheel and then either a pay-out was due or you lose. The
game itself saw participants standing around a wheel which had three revolving rings adorned
with coloured symbols, the inner most of which was a dull red. Outside the rings were lights
that indicated the status of bets from the players and then the wheel was spun, coming
to rest on a result. Traditionally, “Dabo” was shouted when a player won a large pay-out.
In theory anything could be bet into the wheel at the discretion of the establishment, but
most commonly was Gold-pressed latinum, the Ferengi favourite rare metal. In reality,
the game of Dabo was created as a background feature and aside from the general resemblance
to roulette, it did not have any true rules, but that has not stopped other media, such
as Star Trek Online from creating a ruleset to allow you to play.
In this version of Dabo, you can place up to three bets on different spaces around the
outer edge of the wheel. Lights come on to represent which ones have active bets on them
and you don’t have to place a bet on all three, but the ones you don’t wager on remain
inert. You can bet up to a certain amount, which in STO begins at 100 slips of GPL per
bet, but I wouldn’t mind betting that there were even “sky’s the limit style” sessions.
During this stage all other players will also enter their bets around the 36 slots around
the edge of the wheel, however the arms of the Dabo wheel cut off 9 of them, leading
to only 27 available slots to wager on. Then the wheel is spun and when it comes to
a stop. A line can be traced form the centre of the wheel to your light around the edge
and the symbols in the column are your reading. Each combination of symbols has a different
value, which are presumably memorised by the Dabo wheel’s operator and a pay-out is made
from the accumulated bets. The pay-out you receive can easily be less than the amount
you put in; leading to a loss, but it could also be higher.
The three symbols act as modifiers to the bet. Bascially, if your line has matching
colours, you win a small amount in addition to your entry bet. If your line has matching
shapes, whether or not there’s three circles or one, you get a small winning. If you’re
line has matching numbers of shapes, even if its three of one shape and three of another,
you get a small winning. The amount won increases with the amount of these that correspond,
and if you get matching symbols, in the same colour with the same quantity in each ring,
that’s the highest pay-out and when you get to yell Dabo.
In addition to this, there are galaxy swirls which act as any symbol, these little ones
that increase pay-out on the other symbols (Quark, DS9) and a black hole which matches
nothing, unless you get two Black Holes. With all the possible matches that can occur,
it seems on first glance that you’d stand a very high chance to win, but that is deceptive,
as someone far cleverer than me has worked out that on average, you’ll get back 88.01%
of your bet, the rest being syphoned off to the house. However, with the correct line
up of symbols, you could win back 400,000% of your buy-in which is a staggering, but
also incredibly unlikely amount. In STO, its only real use is to covert energy
credits into gold pressed latinum at a slightly less than efficient rate, and in universe,
I can imagine that this tallies up quite nicely with the Ferengi ideal of commerce. Dabo tables
were traditionally staffed by “Dabo Girls”, especially in Ferengi establishments although
this was not always the case. Basically, they were attractive women placed there to watch
over the bets, encourage greater spending through flirtatious behaviour, distract and
apply peer pressure. The wages were also rather poor, although the only example we see is
Quark’s and he’s neither hardly minted nor a paragon of moral virtue.
Moving on from the issues with Ferengi, or we’d be here all day, the addition of having
someone there to encourage you to bet more, offer easy access to alcohol and on occasion,
rig the odds, was all done to maximise profit for the house. As well as the low odds of
success, Dabo wheels were frequently rigged, although Ferengi by-laws on this are a little
unclear, I think it basically boils down to less “don’t rig them” and more, “don’t
let on that they’re rigged”. It was also common to use gravimetric devices to manipulate
the wheels into landing in a preferable position, tipping the odds further.
I generally don’t condone gambling beyond the occasional pack of Pokemon cards or Miniatures
boosters, I’m not even that huge a fan of loot boxes. Those in the 24th century however
don’t have to worry about income in the UFP, so they can throw around their latinum
as they see fit. I’d prefer a game of Tongo, at least that has a degree of control and
skill to it. Thanks for watching this video on Dabo, the
space-age-not-roulette-but-still-a-spinning-wheel-with-gambling, game seen frequently in Deep Space Nine and
undoubtedly not meant to be such a focused upon aspect of the show, but hey, that’s
what I do. Thanks again and until the next video, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you
later, goodbye!