Casino Card Game Rules: How to Play Cassino, the Classic Fishing Game

The game uses one standard 52-card pack. An Ace counts as 1 and the number cards as their face value. Kings, Queens and Jacks have no number value at all in the standard game, which makes them the simplest cards to play and the hardest to use cleverly.^{1 (source)}

The skill lies in memory and simple arithmetic: remembering which cards have gone, spotting sums on the table, and avoiding plays that leave an easy capture for the next player. There is no betting, no bank and no house, which is why the game sits on a rules site mainly because it shares its name with the venue.

The numbers work out exactly: four table cards plus four cards per player per deal use the whole pack. With two players, 4 + 2 × 4 × 6 = 52. The dealer announces “last” when dealing the final round, so everyone knows that the last capture will soon take whatever remains on the table.^{1 (source)}

Play starts with the player to the dealer’s left and goes clockwise. With four players, partners sit opposite each other and pool their captures. After each hand is scored, the deal passes to the left.

In the example, the table holds 3, 5, 8 and a King. Playing the 8 of spades captures the 8 of hearts by pairing and the 3 and 5 together by adding up, since 3 + 5 = 8. The King stays on the table, because only another King could take it.

You may take several groups with one card, as long as each adds up to the value of the card you play. A 9 could capture a 9, a 4 + 5 and a 6 + 3 at the same time. What you cannot do is use one table card in two groups, so with a single 4 on the table, 4 + 5 and 4 + 2 + 3 cannot both count.^{1 (source)}

Captured cards go face down in a pile in front of you. A capture that clears the whole table is a sweep, and in the widely used sweep variation, you keep the capturing card face up so that sweeps can be counted at the end.

Say the table shows a 4 and you hold a 3 and a 7. You place the 3 on the 4 and announce “building seven”. On your next turn, you can capture the pile with your 7. Until then, the cards in the build stay together and cannot be taken separately.^{1 (source)}

A single build can be raised by any player who adds a card from their hand and holds a card to capture the new total. If you have built seven, an opponent holding an Ace and a 8 can add the Ace and announce “building eight”. A multiple build is different: it is made of two or more cards or groups that each equal the same value, such as a 7 together with a 4 + 3. Its value is fixed and can no longer be raised.

Builds can be stolen. Anyone holding a card of the announced value may capture the build on their turn, which is why experienced players build towards values they hold twice, or towards cards they know have already gone.

Trailing is how new cards reach the table after the first deal, and it is often a defensive move. A low card that cannot be combined with anything on the table gives the next player little to work with. A trailed picture card is safest of all when the matching ranks have already been captured.

The rule against trailing with a build on the table protects the game from bluffing: you cannot announce a build, then leave it standing without the means to take it. If you hold the capturing card, you must eventually use it or improve the build.^{1 (source)}

If players tie for most cards or most spades, nobody scores that item. With two players, 26 cards each is a tie, so most cards means at least 27. In the sweep variation, each sweep adds 1 point, though a sweep made with the very last card counts only if it really clears the table.^{1 (source)}

The game is usually played to 21 over several deals. If two players pass 21 in the same deal, the higher total wins, and an exact tie is settled by another deal. Some groups agree a target of 11 or 50 before they start.

Royal Casino is the most common change at home tables, because it gives the picture cards something to do. Spade Casino makes every spade worth a point, with extra points for some spades, so it rewards collecting one suit rather than simply many cards.^{1 (source)}

Whatever version you play, agree the scoring before the first deal, especially whether sweeps count and what the target is. Most disputes in Casino come from those two choices rather than from the play itself.

Casino is traditionally said to come from Italy, but there is no direct evidence it was played there under that name. It was fashionable in America in the late 19th century, when many of today’s variations developed. The spelling Casino appears in the earliest sources and Cassino became common later.^{1 (source)}

If you were looking for the rules of games played in a casino, such as blackjack, roulette and poker, our casino rules homepage sets out how each one works, and the glossary explains the terms used at the tables.