Is It Safe to Say That 007 James Bond Was a Gambling Man?

Almost everyone has heard of 007, James Bond, British Secret Agent, Licensed to Kill, and a master of high-stakes casino games.

Bond, James Bond was the brainchild of writer and former special operations executive (SOE) Ian Fleming. 

Formed in 1940, the Special Operations Executive was an underground army that waged a secret war in enemy-occupied Europe and Asia. Its agents demonstrated incredible courage and resourcefulness in their guerrilla war. By working with resistance forces, they provided a boost to the morale of occupied societies. 

Agents destined to serve in the field underwent commando training at Arisaig in Scotland, where they were taught armed and unarmed combat skills by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes, former Inspectors in the Shanghai Municipal Police. 

Fleming incorporated some of these qualities into his character who some believe was a real person Fleming had met during his service in the armed forces. There is even a James Bond gravestone in a cemetery in Wales.

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The grandson of James Charles Bond was so convinced that Fleming had based the character on his grandfather that he had 007 inscribed in gold on the headstone. 

Bond's grandson, Stephen Phillips, who owns a fruit and veg market stall in Wales (no Broccoli jokes please) said: "There were 100million soldiers from 30 countries and only 13,000 SOEs. Only one SOE was clled James Bond.

"Grandad was protected by Ian Fleming himself I believe."

The grandson of James Bond with his grandfather's headstone.

As well as the courageous elements to his character Bond was portrayed as a ladies man who thought nothing of using the most beautiful women in the world as bait for his prey, usually a psychotic criminal hell bent on some wreaking some form of death and destruction unless huge sums of cash were handed over to his nefarious organisation SPECTER, which stood for  Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.

Bond had to have his wits about him at all times and he had to balance his presentation as a suave, well educated man about town with his cold and calculated plan to dispose of his arch enemies. In between all of this he found time to visit casinos and play card games. 

So proficient was Bond at cards that many of his assignments involved a stop off at the card tables in casinos around the world.

We first see Bond in a casino at Les Ambassadeurs in London. Dr No, 1962, played by Sean Connery. (Image: Universal Images Group North America LLC / Alamy)

The game of Canasta features in Gold Finger (1964 Sean Connery) and again the story line is based around the criminal being a cheat as well as having a penchant for gold, so much so that he paints a woman entirely in gold leaving her for dead on a bed.   

Ian Fleming on the set with Sean Connery in 1963. (Image:  Historical Picture Archive / Alamy)

Bond's propensity for gambling and dexterity at the card table, way before casino sites were a thing, also features in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969 George Lazenby). 

In this, Lazenby's first and last Bond movie he comes to the rescue of the glamorous lady played by Diana Rigg. 

In Moonraker (1979 Roger Moore) M privately asks Bond to investigate a prominent member of his club suspected of cheating at bridge. 

Bond does his research or so we are led to believe when he picks up a copy of the book, Scarne on Cards. Essentially a book with loads of tips on how to spot sharks and tips of the trade and skills such as the Mechanic’s Grip, Palming and Nullifying the Cut. A must read for cards fans.

Bond is also deft at the roulette wheel but can be seen winning and losing. In Diamonds Are Forever (1971 Sean Connery) Bond appears in Las Vegas at the card table and roulette wheel. 

Fleming refers to the casino as the gilded mousetrap school of functional architecture, where the casino client is channeled into the gambling trap “whether he wanted the cheese or not”. 

Bond does well at Nassau Casino in Thunderball  (1969 Sean Connery) when he relieves the criminal Largo out of his entire night’s winnings at chemin de fer - the original variation of baccarat. 

There is a pattern here, which Fleming incorporated so often. Bond slopes in, cleans out the Casino and wines and dines a glamorous lady who is destined to feel the wrath of the humiliated loser. Bond comes to the rescue of such a lady in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969 George Lazenby). 

We see Bond in a Casino again in Casino Royale (2006 Daniel Craig) some 53 years after the by the same name was penned by Ian Fleming. After earning 00 status and a licence to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. 

Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro. 

In the novel we quickly establish that Bond is an expert card player who intends to beat the criminal operative Le Chiffre at the baccarat tables. Bond's character is known to be the best card player in the service, having spent two months in Monte Carlo before the war uncovering a team of Romanian card cheats, the preparation for which included an intensive course on card-sharping. 

Bond, played by Daniel Craig, also visits a casino is in Skyfall, 2012. 

The final time we see Bond in a casino is in Skyfall (2012 Daniel Craig). This time Bond cashes in a chip worth four million euros before using the case containing the cash to whack the henchmen and fight his way out. 

The Bond films portray a sense of glamour at the casino. 

The men are dressed in tuxedos and the women are in evening dresses drenched in jewellery. French is spoken at the tables and there are a lot of people smoking. Bond asking for £500 of chips might not seem much now but it was a lot to be gambled in the early 1960's. In contrast Bond gambles millions of dollars in Casino Royale. 

The casino is Bond's preferred choice of venue to introduce himself to his target. His throwing down of the gauntlet by winning against the ego maniac, unhinged bad guy is just a warm up for what will eventually transpire with Bond succeeding in thwarting a terrible plan with no more than a ruffled shirt. 

It is entirely safe to say that Bond was a gambling man. 

Of Bond, in Casino Royale (1953), Fleming wrote: 

 “Bond had always been a gambler. He loved the dry riffle of the cards and the constant, unemphatic drama of the quiet figures around the green tables. 

He liked the solid, studied comfort of card-rooms and casinos, the well-padded arms of the chairs, the glass of champagne or whisky at the elbow, and the quiet, unhurried attention of good servants. He was amused by the impartiality of the roulette ball and of the playing cards – and their eternal bias. 

He liked being an actor and a spectator and from his chair to take part in other men’s dramas and decisions, until it came to his own turn to say that vital ‘yes’ or ‘no’, generally on a fifty-fifty chance. 

Above all, he liked it that everything was one’s own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master.” Ian Fleming - Casino Royale (1953).