Hi and thank you for reading this post. I am looking for any advice, experience, etc. with respect to gambling and how you run the various possible scenes and not make it a 'power gaming' situation for the player. What I mean by that is to not allow gambling to be the source of huge amounts of credits to gorge upon.

I note the sidebar on Gambling that is on page 108 of the core rules, though wanted some more advice on how to run it, make sure it stays fun though not the powerful and mighty avenue to wealth and fortune. My uncertainty stems from the D20 system we played and how gambling worked mechanically in that system. It became the source of fortune which, by the adventures end enabled the group to buy a fleet of ships..... which the gambling player did.

Any advice, guidance, etc. would be great.

They have some expanded rules for gambling in Suns of Fortune (for Sabacc) and Fly Casual (for a dice game called Hintaro). Those have some suggestions of how to run things mechanically.

As far as keeping the scenes interesting and avoiding a power-game situation, just make sure the challenge is in keeping with the potential gain. When a lot of credits are changing hands, many individuals will want a piece of it. There's a reason casinos have the level of security they do, and it would be even more daunting in Star Wars.

That being said, groups will be out to swindle your gambler. NPCs will work together to cheat. A good movie to check out for inspiration: Rounders. Probably the best movie ever made about gambling.

Last: don't skimp on the consequences. If the PCs have a bad roll, take their money. All of it. Every gambler has a story about going bust. Make sure this is a possibility, and pile on the obligation when they try to scramble out of the hole they just dug themselves.

There's a free supplement, Under A Black Sun, that has some rules around Sabacc as well, it should be available in the downloads section. You can throw your gambler up against skilled opponents from time to time and make those dice rolls opposed, which could lead to some interesting results. Nobody wins big without attracting attention as JRRP suggests - you could always let the gambler win the shirt off that Vigo and see where that leads....

With regards to limiting the amount of money that can be made gambling, remember that just because a table lists possible gains from a game, doesn't mean that every game goes that high in stakes. When you sit down at a poker table, there's generally a hard limit on how much money you stand to make by taking everyone's chips. Sure, other players could elect to re-buy an up the stakes and start wagering starships and Dathomir, but that's a call you get to make as GM. If you don't want to risk your players winning a planet in a game of sabacc, then once the players have won several hands and are up a few hundred, or thousand, credits, have their opponents shrug and concede and walk away. And just having taken that much money off somebody means it might be hard to convince the next table over to let you join their game (Don't forget, sabacc differs from poker in that some money gets put up for ante every round into the Sabacc pot, which is only won by certain hands. So while a player can consistently win with good hands, the Sabacc pot may still be growing in the centre of the table, allowing anyone to win big right to the end. This also means that trying to join a sabacc game part way through is anywhere from rude to a good way to get shot, since you stand to gain more than you've risked, unless you immediately buy in for your share of that pot, which could be a large expense before you even sit down.)

Also decide how granular you want your gambling roll to be: how many hands are represented by a single roll? A gambling check could represent an entire night's gambling, an hour's worth of playing, or even a single hand. The more rolls you ask them to make, the greater their control, and the better your chance of creating a single, intense, high stakes game, with thousands of credits hanging on each turn of the card: but you should probably have extra mechanics in place to allow them to represent bluffing, folding, etc, as well as being confident that this is what they want out of their session. Otherwise, they're just going to be bored rolling the same dice pool over and over. For sabacc, I generally like letting them roll 3-4 checks to represent the evening's gambling, which gives them enough control to construct a narrative without getting bored. They can add boost and setback to show good bluffs and tilting their opponents, basing different checks off Perception to see tells and Deception to bluff (Suggestion: if you want to challenge them and encourage varied play, as well as potentially allowing a venue for someone to craft a skilled gambler, require each check be based on a different skill: Deception, Perception, Cool or even Knowledge. If players are competing against each other, those 4 rolls could represent an evening's cards, and they can each choose the order they wish to roll them in, as each player's varied strengths are tested over the course of the game.) If anyone rolls a Triumph, they win the Sabacc pot and end up the primary winner (again, what percentage of the winning this represents could depend on how many checks have occurred: winning the pot on the first hand yields far fewer credits than doing so on the last. this encourages players to test their weakest skills first, and save the greatest tension for last.)

Casinos will throw you out if you win too much, even if they don't catch you cheating. Pretty simple way to govern the credits earned. Opposed dice makes for the easiest/fastest way to simulate gambling.

What 2P51 said. Also, if they are winning to much, have some npc start cheating. Or have a npc pick a fight with them. Preferably one that turns into a full brawl that will either see them thrown out or completely wreck the casino so there is no more gambling that night.

Another point to consider: if your character wins big, that will attract the sharks. A huge win might allow the character access to game that is so far beyond his current skill level that he has very little chance. Rather than boot him from the casino, you could have the manager arrange a game with a powerful patron and her equally powerful friends.

It does you no good to be the eighth best Sabacc player in the galaxy if the players at the table with you are numbers 1-7.

Haha, thanks guys. Great advice there. Even some funny potential situations. The feedback is great as it complements and adds to the rules. I feel you have given me good foundations to build from.

Mainly, keep it challenging, and keep it fun