Las Vegas Gambit (Host: Wink Martindale)
On September 4th, 1972, the 70s game show boom officially kicked off when three classic formats, The Joker's Wild, The New Price Is Right and Gambit, premiered on CBS. These three shows have achieved legendary status, one of the reasons being is each was emceed by a legendary host. The third game show mentioned premiered at 11:00 AM on the game show industry's most historic day and ran for over four years. It was very simple to play along to and was based on the popular casino game Blackjack. If you "had the knowledge" and "knew the odds," you would be a perfect player on Gambit, hosted by the best looking man to ever put on a polyester suit, Wink Martindale.
Gambit featured two competing couples answering questions to try and build up their Blackjack hand. The goal was to get closest to 21 without going over. Answering questions correctly earned the couple the chance to either keep or give away a card, meaning strategy was an integral part of the game. Winning two out of three games won the match and a chance to win thousands of dollars in cash and prizes by playing the bonus game.
It was truly a shame when Gambit was canceled because it's such a delightful and exciting game to watch and had such strong lead-ins for most of it's run with The Price Is Right and The Joker's Wild. In 1979, a pilot for a new version of Gambit was shot with some fun, new features and with Wink Martindale as host, but it, unfortunately, did not sell. One year later, in 1980, Gambit would make it's long-awaited return in a brand new setting, Las Vegas, Nevada.
The show was appropriately renamed Las Vegas Gambit and it was once again hosted by the Winker, Wink Martindale. This version of the show was filmed at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas but unfortunately only ran for a little over a year from 1980 to 1981. Just like its predecessor, Las Vegas Gambit featured two couples trying to get as close to 21 without going over.
The main difference that this version of the show included was a brand new bonus game. For the first half of the run, the bonus game was basically the same as the original bonus round except there were 18 prizes to choose from instead of 21. However, halfway through the run, a new bonus game was installed that was, in fact, the same bonus game featured on another Heatter-Quigley Production, High Rollers, which Wink Martindale ended up hosting a revival of from 1987 to 1988. Instead of calling it the "Big Numbers," Las Vegas Gambit named it the "Gambit Galaxy." The winning couple were given giant dice and had to knock off all nine numbers on the board to win thousands of dollars in prizes that made up the "Gambit Galaxy."
Overall, Las Vegas Gambit was a great attempt to revive a proven format and Wink was, of course, on his hosting game for every single episode. Unfortunately, the audience just wasn't there and the show ended up going "bust." A modern adaptation of Gambit would eventually air on GSN from July of 2008 to July of 2011 with host Alphonso Ribeiro. The name of the show, Catch 21.
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