Gambit was a game show produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, and aired on CBS from September 1972 to December 1976, along with a slightly retooled version, Las Vegas Gambit, airing on NBC from September 1980 to October 1981, originating from the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Both versions of the show were hosted by Wink Martindale, and announced by Kenny Williams. Elaine Stewart was the card dealer for the CBS version. On the Las Vegas Gambit version, the card dealer was Beverly Malden; she left half-way through the series' run and was replaced by Lee Menning.

A British version of the show was produced by Anglia Television for ITV. It ran from 1978 to 1985, and was hosted by Fred Dinenage.

Another version of Gambit was in the works in the early-1990s, hosted by Bob Eubanks and featured single players instead of couples. That version never made it to the air.

Rules of the Game

Main Game
Two married couples competed. A question would be asked, either multiple-choice or true-false, to both couples. The couple who buzzed in and answered the question correctly got to control the next card off of the deck of 52 playing cards. (The first would be shown before the question, the rest would be presented face-down.) Once a couple got control of a card, they had the choice to either add the card to their own hand, or force their opponents to take it (unless they're frozen; see below). The objective of the game is quite similar to Blackjack, to get your hand as close to 21 without going over as possible, or of course obtaining blackjack with an ace and a face card or a ten. As in blackjack, the value of cards 2 through 10 are as shown; face cards (Kings, Queens and Jacks) count as 10s, and an ace counts either as a 1 or 11.

After a couple received any card, they could elect to freeze their board, disallowing any more cards to be added to their hand. Once this happened, the other couple answered questions until one of the following conditions occurred:


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Conditions for Winning
Once an opposing couple "froze" (stood before reaching 21), the unfrozen couple does one of the following: 
Misses a question, giving the game to the other couple. 
Busts (went over 21), giving the game to the other couple. 
Passes the score of the frozen couple (ties did not count), winning the game. 
Either couple reaches 21 exactly at any time, winning a jackpot that started at $500, and went up $500 more for each game that it wasn't won. 
A win earned the couple $100, and two wins earned the couple the right to head to the Bonus Round.


Bonus Round (Original version)
The winning couple played the Gambit Bonus Board. They were presented with a large board with 21 cards, numbered 1 through 21. Each card concealed a prize for the couple; along with each prize the couple won, they received a card added to their hand from the deck.

The game ended in one of three ways:

The couple elected to stop before reaching 21 (especially if they feared the next card would push them over 21, or in some instances, if they got a desirable prize they wanted to keep). 
Going "BUST" (over 21), at which point they lost everything they found on the board. 
Reaching 21 exactly, wherein they won the Gambit Jackpot (mentioned earlier) and a new car. 
One prize occasionally offered during the bonus round was "Beat the House": contenstants winning this prize would then have the opportunity to play one hand of blackjack (standard single-deck rules, with the possible exception that there did not appear to be any cases in which contestants "split a pair" or "doubled down") against the house (as personified by Martindale) for a cash prize.


Bonus Rounds (Las Vegas version)
For the first portion of the year this version ran, a bonus round like the original was played, with two differences:

The couple selected numbers from an 18-monitor game board instead of 21 cards. 
Like the dealer in blackjack, a couple could only elect to stop when their hand totalled 17 or above. 
The second half of the season featured "The Big Numbers", a game based off another Heatter-Quigley game, High Rollers, which Wink Martindale would eventually host in 1987. The couple was presented with a pair of dice, and was asked to "knock off" the numbers 1 through 9 from a board in front of them. To do this, the couple eliminated numbers that added up to the total they rolled (for instance, if the couple rolled a 10, they could eliminated 4 and 6; 3 and 7; 1, 2, 3, and 4; or any other comination that added to 10.) Each number the couple knocked off won $100 per number, and if all nine were knocked off, a growing "Gambit Galaxy" prize package was awarded. In the event a double was rolled (e.g. a pair of ones, twos, threes, fours, fives or sixes), then an insurance marker is awarded and can be used in the event a bad number is rolled.


Episode Status
None of the Martindale versions are believed to have survived, except for one of the original Gambit series and a few of the Las Vegas Gambit series. In the fall of 1977, reruns of the original CBS version of Gambit aired in syndication (primarily on WPIX New York and KHJ-TV Los Angeles), so it is possible that the episodes from the original version may exist.


Trivia
The style of cards used in the show would later come back for The Price Is Right in the pricing game "Hit Me," also based on blackjack. A smaller version of this style deck is also used for the "Joker" pricing game. Ironically, The Price is Right and Gambit both debuted on CBS on the same date (4 September 1972), along with The Joker's Wild.