The Gambler

75 years ago - Stephen Sharpe is born in South Carolina.

61 years ago - 14-year-old Sharpe's father is sent to prison for killing a man over a poker game. He is sent to a boys home, where he quickly creates his own gambling ring.

58 years ago - 17-year-old Sharpe is caught cheating at an underground poker game. He shoots the man accusing him, and is sent to juvenile detention. He quickly establishes elaborate gambling networks, earning the nickname the Gambler.

57 years ago - 18-year-old Sharpe is released and goes to Vegas, becoming infamous as he regularly wins and loses vast fortunes, working with various organized crime organizations.

48 years ago - 27-year-old Sharpe has a hit put on him and flees Vegas for Texas, where he creates his own underground casino, laundering drug money for several cartels.

44 years ago - 31-year-old Sharpe's underground casino is raided by government operatives. He flees the country, setting up new casinos in Monte Carlo. He has an affair with a cousin of the prince, Rebecca Sinclair, who has his daughter, Veronica Sinclair.

37 years ago - 38-year-old Sharpe successfully steals a small fortune from a Swedish crime boss, and flees Europe, returning to America where he creates a new riverboat casino in Opal City, regularly antagonizing Ted Knight.

33 years ago - 42-year-old Sharpe is brought into the Injustice Society by Vandal Savage in an effort to defeat the All-Star Squadron.

28 years ago - 47-year-old Sharpe is joined by his daughter, Veronica Sinclair, and begins building a network of underground casinos.

26 years ago - 49-year-old Sharpe's daughter Veronica Sinclair goes to the University of California Berkley to study statistics & starts building her betting algorithms, allowing other students to bet on everything from amateur sports to politics.

23 years ago - 52-year-old Sharpe's casinos are infiltrated by King Faraday, Christopher Chance & Cole Cash. He is arrested, his assets moved by his daughter Veronica Sinclair.

19 years ago - 56-year-old Sharpe's converts to Kobra in prison. He is freed to perform the assassination of the daughter of a senator, which he attempts at an Ashes on Sunday concert. He is stopped by Black Canary.

6 years ago - 69-year-old Sharpe escapes from prison and joins Veronica Sinclair in managing her underground fighting tournament. He pushes for larger events, putting Ted Grant against Baran & Selinda Flinders. Ted is severely injured, leading Black Canary & Sandra Wu to shut down the entire operation. Veronica frames him, and he is again imprisoned.

There are tons of very minor villains all through the history of DC that might seem fairly unimportant in the long run, but just by virtue of being around for so long, they become recognizable parts of the tapestry of DC characters. Villains like the Gambler don't really NEED to be there, but they certainly add some unmistakable flair when you manage to find a role in the story for them to play.

The Gambler's Story

The Gambler appeared for the first time back in 1941, in Green Lantern #12. It's kind of important to remember that a lot of the tropes we think of with Green Lantern really weren't in place back in these early adventures of Alan Scott, he was really just running on rooftops and punching people, so a notorious gambler character was still a viable villain. Sharpe would go on to appear several more times in the original Green Arrow series, and his standout design has kept him a regularly referenced feature of that time period.

When Roy Thomas created a second generation Injustice Society to go up against Infinity Inc, he created The Gambler's granddaughter, Hazard. This creates an interesting window for us, because the backstory of an entirely different gambling-based villain from Geoff John's JSA, Roulette, suggests that her parent was ANOTHER gambling-themed villain who fought the original Mr. Terrific. It just seemed natural for us to put the two together, making Roulette the daughter of the Gambler, who was an enemy of the All-Star Squadron. It works together really nicely, creating a character who feels like he belongs.

Our main role for the Gambler is to set up Roulette, but even still we believe this is someone who could absolutely be featured in stories of their own.

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