Casinos play an important role in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. This is the version of the game in which players assume the role of Carl Johnson, better known as CJ, the game’s anti-hero. When the story begins CJ has enjoyed five years away from the corruption and gang wars of Los Santos (the game version of Los Angeles) but things have gone wrong. His mother has been murdered and his family and friends are having a bad time of things.
Things go from bad to worse. CJ is framed for a murder by corrupt LA cops and he sets off on a journey across San Andreas to sort things out.
Casinos feature in this journey in a number of ways. One of them is to get hold of some money. There are three casinos in which you can gamble as you might when playing online slots to build up a healthy bankroll. You start by betting on horse racing and playing pool, but then you graduate to games such as roulette, blackjack, wheel of fortune and slots. These games are not entirely based on the rules of chance, they have a superstitious bent. You can collect horseshoes throughout your journey, and the more horseshoes you have to your name the better your luck gets.
You can also borrow money from these casinos and in the highly likely event that you make off with it the casino dispatches a number of henchmen to track you down. As long as you have a good weapon you can generally deal with them and, as a bonus, you can steal their money too.
The game also involves casino wars between. One is owned by Triad gangs from Hong Kong and another is owned by the Mafia, and the Triads and the Mafia don’t get along together. You can also become a shareholder in the mafia run casino. The other ten casinos feature in the game in a number of ways, some of them providing just a backdrop and others being more critical to the plot.
This post by Thomas Shannon
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