Pac-Man has been around since the dawn of video games, with the dot-muncher gracing every gaming platform imaginable, starting with his original arcade release. Now Pac-Man is set to conquer a wildly unexpected new frontier: the world of casino gambling.

A report by Compete (the esports wing of Kotaku and Deadspin) points to the existence of Pac-Man Battle Casino, a collaboration between publisher Bandai Namco and casino gaming designers Gamblit Gaming. The tabletop game would look similar to the cocktail table versions of Pac-Man Battle Royale and play in almost the same fashion, pitting four Pac-Man players against one another. Like Battle Royale, the idea is to be the last Pac-Man standing, attempting to outlast the other Pac-Men against CPU-controlled ghosts. Players place their bets prior to the start of each session and compete for a prize randomly determined at the start of each round.

What makes Battle Casino unique is that it's one of the first instances of skill-based video game gambling. While slot machines have adopted video displays, they're still mainly games of chance. Success in Battle Casino is entirely dependent on one's skill as a Pac-Man player.

Look for the first Pac-Man Battle Casino machines to pop up at next week's G2E trade show in Las Vegas, NV, with permanent casino hosts set to be announced.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?