Can you joke about gambling?

Gambling often brings to mind high stakes and serious strategies, but that also means - like anything that appears pompous - it can potentially be a rich target for humour. Indeed, from Mitchell & Webb's dog-based casino sketch to Johnny English causing havoc when he visited such a venue, British comedy and gambling have overlapped many times. The authors from CasinoTop.co.nz have compiled a selection of the best gambling jokes. Explore these humorous takes on the world of gambling and add some fun to your gameplay!

You may remember A Losing Streak, the third episode from the second series of Only Fools And Horses. First broadcast in 1982, it sees Del Boy playing a high-stakes game of poker with Boycie and leads to one of the sitcom's best scripted exchanges:

Boycie: Well done, Del. Nicely played. Where did you get those bloody Aces from?

Del Boy: Same place you got them Kings. I knew you was cheating, Boycie.

Boycie: Oh yeah? How?

Del: 'Cos that wasn't the hand that I dealt you.

Exquisite!

We can probably all agree that laughter, which is widely acknowledged in literature as "the best medicine" of course, is an important part of leading a happy life - both generating it in others and giggling yourself. With that in mind we thought we'd focus a bit on lightening up the world of high stakes high stress gambling with some gags.

Whilst winning and losing is a serious business and we wouldn't want to make light of anyone losing cash in a way that impacts on their life - comedian John Robins is amongst those who have spoken about the problems associated with gambling addition - it's certainly true that humour can be blended with the sounds of casual slot machine use and card shuffling to add some fun to proceedings. Variations of this joke have been told, for example: "James told Andy that winning in a casino was easy, revealing he went to the Hippodrome in a £10,000 Nissan and returned in a £200,000 Lamborghini. Intrigued, Andy set off in his £20,000 Ford. He returned in a vehicle worth £349,000... a Stagecoach bus!"

Casinos have also featured in a number of cheesy jokes that even kids can tell. For example, "Why aren't there any casinos in Africa? Because there are too many cheetahs", and "I work as an accountant for Hallmark. Casinos kick me out for being a 'professional card counter'."

Actually, does that second one even count as a joke? And do children know what Hallmark is? Hmm. Perhaps not. In terms of the quality of humour, it probably would get you thrown off poker tables for causing players to groan!

Here's one you might not want to tell kids: "I played poker at a casino that ran out of toilet paper. I had shitty hands the rest of the night."

Meanwhile some casino jokes can be a bit niche. We're not sure we really even understand this one we just looked up: "What do you call an iguana running a casino? The lizard of odds." And can someone explain this next one to us? "In my last poker game, someone lost their house - quite a card-sharp bungalow!"

Apparently this next joke is a hit among professional poker players: "What do you call cows playing poker in a penthouse? High steaks."

And this less-witty variation: "Why did the poker player bring a gun to the game? To raise the stakes!"

Perhaps the conclusion of this article should be that full time poker players could be schooled a bit on what is possible in terms of witty humour.

"Did you know a T-Rex was arrested after being hired at a casino? He was a small arms dealer."

"What did the gambling addicts name their daughter? Betty."

One of the best-known joke formulas goes along the lines of: "I used to have a horrible gambling addiction, but I wager I'll never gamble again." It can be mixed in various ways, and almost always works. For example: "My wife has left me because I am a compulsive gambler. I'd do anything to win her back."

We're ready (some would say too late) to end our journey through gambling jokes now. As we can probably all agree, some of these jokes have been painful, but as some would say a groan is better than no reaction at all?!?