Christmas gambling games are a great way to spice up your holiday parties or family gatherings. Whether it’s you, or that crazy uncle who knows every word to Dean Martin’s Baby It’s Cold Outside, every family has someone that loves to gamble. Additionally, most families love healthy competition especially if money can be earned.
We’re not saying to take all of grandma’s cash, but snagging a few extra dollars could certainly go a long way to paying off the debt you racked up buying Christmas presents for family and friends.
This year, instead of the same boring traditions, consider playing any of these fun Christmas gambling games during the holiday season. Note, a few of these gambling party games will require an online casino account.
What Are the Best Christmas Gambling Games?
After playing many different Christmas gambling games over the years, we’ve compiled a list of the best games to consider playing with your family and friends during the holidays. And, no, this isn’t like Santa’s naughty or nice list. All of the gambling party games on this list will definitely get you and your partygoers in the holiday spirit:
- Festive Christmas Slots Games
- Christmas Poker Tournaments
- Christmas Gambling Party Games
- Christmas Sports Betting
Play Festive Christmas Slots Games Online
Getting into the festive spirit with your favorite Christmas slots is on our to-do list this holiday season. For this year, online gambling sites have released a great deal of Christmas games that slots players of all skill level will enjoy.
There are so many great online slots for real money, that it is tough to choose a favorite. But the Christmas slot game that we’ve been playing the most in December is the Santa’s Ways slot machine at Bovada. The Santa’s Ways slot is a 3-row, 5-reel slot machine featuring 243 ways to win.
Find three or more Christmas tree symbols, and you can earn up to 25 free spins with a 10x multiplier. If you hit the Christmas presents symbol, get ready for an infusion of wild symbol hits.
But, our favorite feature of Santa’s Ways is that it is a Hot Drops Jackpot slot! You can play for guaranteed hourly, daily, and epic jackpots worth thousands of dollars.
Christmas Poker Tournaments
Along with playing gambling party games at your Christmas gathering, we suggest proposing a home poker tournament. Even if you don’t have a proper poker table, get some poker chips, cards, set your blinds, and a include a small buy-in fee to have a festive poker game.
If you are unable to have a home poker game, consider taking a look at the extensive list of online poker tournaments at Ignition Casino. Exclusively for the holidays, Ignition Casino is offering some lucrative casino bonuses for poker players.
Ignition Casino provides poker players with a variety of different stakes for online poker tournaments every single day. If you aren’t ready for high-stakes buy-ins, then Ignition Casino allows players to enter poker tournaments for big prizes with pocket change.
Also, Ignition Casino has weekly freeroll tournaments that don’t require a buy-in. Deposit with cryptocurrency at Ignition Casino and get a 150% welcome poker bonus of up to $1,500. The bonus also comes with a 150% welcome casino bonus of up to $1,500.
Non-crypto deposits can still get into the action with a lucrative offer. Deposit with a credit card, and you’ll receive a 100% welcome poker bonus of up to $1,000 and a 100% welcome casino bonus of up to $1,000.
Christmas Gambling Party Games
In addition to the Christmas gambling games above, we’ve compiled a list of fun gambling games for parties during the holidays:
Virtual Reindeer Racing
If you like virtual horse race betting, there is a good chance that you are going to like virtual Reindeer Racing. Available for purchase on Etsy, Reindeer Racing allows participants to pick their favorite reindeer across four races.
The game includes recent form cards, highlighting how horses have been running recently. Points are issued to the Top 3 finishing horses for each race:
- 1st earns three points
- 2nd tallies two points
- 3rd wins one point.
After the four races are completed, the player with the most points wins the Reindeer Racing game. Before making your picks, everyone will contribute to the pot with a buy-in fee. The player at the top of the leaderboard wins the pot.
The game offers a league table and cards for each player to write out their picks on. Along with local play between friends and family in your living room, Reindeer Racing can be played with your party through video chat online.
Christmas String Game
There are a few different variations of the Christmas String Game. Also referred to as the Mystery String Challenge, this is another Christmas gambling party game of random chance. Like roulette, it’s all about picking the right option and hoping for the best.
You will need one plastic cup, gift wrap string, candy canes, and cash for the game. Cut a hole in the top of the cup. The string will be used to go through the hole, and tied to each candy cane.
In place of a candy cane, you can use plastic plates, a small gift bag, or an assortment of other items to tie the string through the cup. You will need at least one candy cane or plate for every person playing the game.
Tape money to each candy cane, or place the bills on the plate attached to the string going through the top of the cup. Each player will have a turn to pull a piece of string from the top of the cup. The game must be set up in a way that doesn’t reveal which string is attached to which candy cane.
One string will have the grand prize, another will have the second-biggest prize, and so on. The prizes will depend on the size of the pot from the buy-ins. You can also include some candy canes that have no bills attached.
Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt
We are confident that you’ve participated in an Easter egg hunt before. Whether it’s in your home or an outdoor hunt, Easter egg hunts are a popular childhood game.
How about a candy cane hunt as a Christmas gambling game? Scattered across your house, or if possible, in your backyard, hide candy canes before your guests arrive.
The objective is simple: whoever finds the most candy canes wins the pot. If there is a tie, then have those players continue playing for another minute to award a winner.
Name That Christmas Song
With so many classic Christmas songs available to choose from, it will be easy to create a massive Christmas playlist to use for this gambling party game.
Make sure that your playlist does not only include classics that everyone knows. That will result in the game being too easy for players. Mix in some less popular Christmas songs to spice up this fun gambling game.
Go from song to song in your playlist, and record which player guesses the name the quickest. At the end of the game, tally up all the scores, and whoever correctly named the most songs wins the pool.
Jingle Bell Toss
Beer pong is a staple of many college frat parties. While you might have outgrown beer pong, no one is too old for the Jingle Bell Toss, not even Santa Claus.
Recruit a partner and challenge another couple to a Jingle Bell Toss competition. Instead of using beer in the cups, try eggnog. Not everyone is an eggnog lover, so you can also consider other holiday adult beverages, too.
To put you in the Christmas spirit, consider a Christmas tree design instead of the traditional pyramid with your cups on the playing surface. As the name implies, replace ping pong balls with jingle bells. If you don’t have any, we aren’t going to say that you can’t use tree ornaments.
You won’t be able to go for bounce shots, but the jingle bells make everything a little more Christmasy. The team that successfully throws all of their jingle bells into the opposing eggnog Christmas tree cups first, is the winner of the game.
In addition to the prize for winning the Jingle Bell Toss, you can throw in some prop bets within the game. For instance, making three shots in a row will earn a bonus payout, paid by the opposing team.
Christmas Plinko
Is there a crafty person at your Christmas party? Perfect. They should have some fun putting together a Christmas Plinko board. You can go as extravagant or simple as you want with your board.
However, it has to be a Christmas-themed Plinko board. In other words, the background of the board should be a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, reindeer, snowmen, or whatever you want to decorate it appropriately for Christmas.
We recommend designing a board like a Christmas tree, with the pegs on the board resembling a Christmas tree shape. If you want to go above and beyond, adding some Christmas lights would be a nice touch.
At the bottom of the Plinko board, place a variety of different denominations, with the top cash prize located in the center. Small Christmas gift bags can be used to catch the balls.
As a huge fan of Plinko on The Price Is Right, this game is one of our favorite Christmas gambling games.
Make NBA Christmas Day Bets and More
For the sports bettors in your family, placing bets on sports can be the ultimate way to celebrate the holidays during your Christmas party. Although Xmas is typically synonymous with NBA betting, there is so much more for sports bettors during the holiday season.
Additionally, there are two options for you and your family to place Christmas bets. The first option is to use the best online sports betting sites to place your wagers. The second option, to be the bookie at your Christmas gambling party and take bets from friends and family.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at what popular sporting events are taking place during Christmas weekend as you might be able to shape your holiday gambling games around these sports:
NBA Christmas Slate of Games
Five NBA games are scheduled for Christmas Day. The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers at 5:00 p.m. ET is the crown jewel of the Christmas matchups. The other games don’t look too bad, either.
Check out the NBA Christmas Day schedule for December 25, 2023, below:
- Milwaukee Bucks vs. New York Knicks at 12:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)
- Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets at 2:30 p.m. ET (ABC, ESPN)
- Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers at 5:00 p.m. ET (ABC, ESPN)
- Philadelphia 76ers vs. Miami Heat at 8:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)
- Dallas Mavericks vs. Phoenix Suns at 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
NFL Christmas Weekend Schedule
With Christmas Eve on a Sunday this year, the NFL has an opportunity to take center stage during the holidays. Ten NFL games are scheduled for Christmas Eve. The Dallas Cowboys vs. Miami Dolphins highlight the NFL Christmas Eve schedule.
On Christmas Day, the NFL has three games on the schedule. There is an afternoon, late afternoon, and evening game in the NFL on Christmas. The Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers is a highly anticipated matchup at NFL betting sites.
- Las Vegas Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs at 1:00 p.m. ET (CBS)
- New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles at 4:30 p.m. ET (FOX)
- Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers at 8:15 p.m. ET (ABC)
College Football Bowl Game Christmas Schedule
There aren’t any bowl games for Christmas Day on the college football bowl schedule. However, there are games taking place from Christmas weekend to the College Football Playoff on New Year’s Day.
In fact, seven college bowl games are on the docket for Saturday, December 23, 2023. On Tuesday, December 26, 2023, the action continues with three more bowls.
Choose BetUS As Your Sportsbook For Christmas Betting
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If you are interested in depositing with a credit card or another method, BetUS has a 125% welcome bonus. New members can get a 100% sports bonus of up to $2,500 and a 25% casino bonus of up to $625. This offer also includes 30 risk-free bets.
