Protagonists in TNG's 'The Royale'

[FaxModem1]

Ok, in the second season of TNG episode, 'The Royale', Worf, Data and Riker beam down to a planet called Theta 8 to investigate an area where there is oxygen atmosphere on an otherwise inhospitable world. They find nothing but a revolving door, and once passing through, discover themselves to be stuck in what looks to be a Las Vegas casino. Eventually, they discover they are trapped in a recreation of a trashy novel read by an astronaut who was stuck there for the rest of his life. The only way out is to play as the role of the foriegn investors and buy the place for 12.5 million. Data gambles until they have the money. Upon doing so, they are able to exit the hotel and beam out.

So, for this thread, same scenario, only we'll have different players.

The Hotel Royale isn't destroyable by handheld phasers, but it might be penetrable by the E-D's phasers(though that would kill the three down on the planet.) The people there aren't real, and are going to fulfill their subplots until the end of the book. Acting out of character gets you mostly shrugged off by the NPCs at the hotel.

So, some sample protagonists.

For all substitute characters, we'll try and justify how they got there.

SG1 or SGA: there's a stargate outside of the hotel for this scenario so they can't leave until they get out.
Star Wars: Landing platform connected to a space elevator to the area next to the casino.
Babylon 5: Same as above
Farscape: Tell me you don't see this happening on their show.
Lexx: Ditto, only more sex.

Add your own characters from a TV show if you'd like, and decide who would make it out, and who ends up dying of old age in there.

[General Zod]

The Hotel Royale isn't destroyable by handheld phasers, but it might be penetrable by the E-D's phasers(though that would kill the three down on the planet.) The people there aren't real, and are going to fulfill their subplots until the end of the book. Acting out of character gets you mostly shrugged off by the NPCs at the hotel.

Weren't they unable to communicate with the ship as well?

[FaxModem1]

Yes, until Picard and crew figured out a way to reach them. Whether or not the other protagonists are able to do so is probably another factor.

[Samuel]

Smart individuals make loaded dice and add it to the craps table. I don't see any group with more than 2 people getting stuck there.

[Gandalf]

Smart individuals make loaded dice and add it to the craps table. I don't see any group with more than 2 people getting stuck there.

How do you make reliable loaded dice that can be played at a casino craps table?

[DarkAscendant]

Once they figure out that the only way to get out is to buy the casino, a trio of Jedi could do this easily. They make a killing at the craps tables and out they go.

[phred]

Once they figure it out, and set themselves up as 'The Foreign Investors' won't whatever game they choose to play incline itself to give them the money to fulfill their part of the story?
And if I'm wrong I don't recall there being much in the way of security there. If Tea'lc or Chewie want to roll loaded dice, who's going to stop them?

[Nephtys]

This is like 90% of the Stargate episode plots, but with a Casino.

Jack makes snarky comments about how he loses at craps. Then he gets addicted to slots and goes off for a bit.
Carter comments about the mathematical odds of winning at any time, which Jack tells her not to say.
Daniel notes how fascinating how accurate the casino is, and chickens out of playing a high stakes game, though he develops a crush on a female dealer.
Teal'c grabs some bouncer by the arm and squeezes until he is let in to see the manager. He comes out some times later, having solved the problem and making some awkward mis-attempt to use an earth colloquialism.

[Peptuck]

To throw in someone else, the crew of the good ship Serenity, which will probably last until River gets to the poker tables. Hard to have a fair poker game with a reader, after all.

[charlemagne]

To throw in someone else, the crew of the good ship Serenity, which will probably last until River gets to the poker tables. Hard to have a fair poker game with a reader, after all.

But first Mal and Jayne would get in trouble for cheating or trying to cheat. Fisticuffs ensue.

[Darth Onasi]

Palpatine goes in and either uses the Force to cheat his way to victory or gets bored and tosses something valuable on his person to buy the casino.
He then leaves and declares every single person in the casino an enemy of the Republic.

[RedImperator]

The problem with poker is that the money in the pot doesn't come from the house, it comes from the other players, with the house taking a cut of the pot off the top. Using a psychic to cheat at poker is probably a sure thing in the long run, but it's going to take a while to raise twelve million bucks that way. It's unknown how the NPCs will react to a player who always wins or folds, so River might have to throw a few hands to keep up the illusion it's a fair game. A skilled poker player could also make a profit over time, but that will take even longer than cheating.

Jedi don't have to bother with poker, of course. Roulette pays 35 to one on a straight out bet, and a Jedi should always know the next number. Skilled Jedi can also canonically telekinetically manipulate dice, so a Jedi can roll 7s until he busts the house.

And of course, card-counting is an option for regular humans at the blackjack table, if someone knows how to do it. I don't remember if the blackjack tables had automatic shuffle machines, but since the episode was made 20 years ago, I doubt it.

Without either psychic powers, superhuman strength (and enough precision control to make loaded dice the way Data did), poker skills, or card-counting, however, I don't see how anyone else gets out by "beating the game". If we assume the casino's odds are the same as a real casino's (and there's no reason to assume otherwise), gambling will, on average, lose more money than it makes. There's a chance the roulette wheels are unbalanced and there's a pattern to where the ball falls, but you have to observe them for a long time--and it helps to be a mathematician to figure it out. Making your own fixed dice is a fool's errand. Not only do you have no tools, but you have no time to do it. Casinos don't let you bring your own dice to the table, and the dice they use have serial numbers printed on them. You have to be able to fix the dice right at the table, the way Data did, or it's not going to work. All the other games are even harder to cheat.

[Uraniun235]

If they manage to figure out that they're living out a book, and if they can manage to get back in touch with their mothership, then another possibility would be to send in a volunteer with a sack of money to buy out the casino. There's the issue of not having American dollars (unless it's SG-1... which leads into the hilarious scene where someone has to go beg for like ten million dollars to send to a fake casino), but then the alien reproduction of the casino may not be able to differentiate between "real" dollars and thousand-dollar notes printed on a color laser printer.