Dealer's Choice (game show)

Three contestants, chosen from the studio audience, competed in games of chance, all related to gambling. Three audience members' names were each hidden behind one of nine slot machine symbols on a gameboard. An audience member was selected and chose four symbols from the board. For each symbol that hid a contestant's name, the audience member received $25. If the audience member uncovered all three contestants' names, then the audience member won a bonus prize.

After being seated behind one of three podiums onstage, each contestant was given 100 chips to wager in various casino-type games. Multiple games used playing cards, including "Blackjack," "Any Pair Loses," "In-Between," etc. Other games included using a "Wheel of Chance" or a hopper filled with colored ping-pong balls. In some games contestants made a single bet which was then paid out at specific odds or subtracted from the contestant's chips depending upon the outcome of the game. Other games featured a compounded betting format in which the contestants made an initial bet, and the payout was doubled or tripled multiple times as the game progressed.

The first three games featured limits for the number of chips allowed to be wagered. The first game usually featured a five- or ten-chip limit, and the second had a 25-chip maximum. Blackjack was always featured as the third game and had a 50-chip maximum. The third game also featured an audience member acting as the "house." The audience member won $1 for each chip lost to the house in the game, and also won a bonus prize if the house's hand beat all three contestants's hands. The fourth game featured no limit on betting, and each contestant's wager was made in secret at the start of the game.

After the fourth game, contestants chose one of three prizes from three different categories (1−100 chips, 101−300 chips, and 301-500 chips) based upon the final number of chips they held. If two or more contestants finished in the same level, the contestant finishing with the higher total received first choice of the prizes. In later episodes, a contestant who finished with more than 500 chips won a car. Additionally, the person with the highest chip total overall played a bonus game for an additional prize.

The winning player rolled special "Bonus Dice," whose faces represented sums of money from $50–$200. But one face on one Bonus Die had a spade on it, and if the contestant rolled the spade all bonus round winnings were lost and the game was over. The contestant continued to roll until he or she rolled the spade, quit with the money he or she had already won, or reached $1,000. In the last of those three possible cases, the contestants also won bonus prizes such as a car or trip.