In-Universe:
Como a Federação não faz fazer dinheiro , as apostas são essencialmente sem sentido. O jogo parece ser para o direito de se gabar de quem ganhou ou perdeu, o elemento divertido do jogo e o foco psicológico no pensamento estratégico .
A exceção a isso no TNG é do episódio Qualidade de Vida , onde Beverley Crusher provoca Será que Riker apostará sua barba no resultado final:
BEVERLY : Okay... what do you say we up the stakes a little? If I win this hand... you all shave off your beards [and] if one of you wins -- I become a brunette. Are we on?
GEORDI : We'll take that bet.
n.b. script edited for brevity
E no episódio da Voyager Coletivo :
NEELIX: I don't know what you're talking about. I've, I've, this is the first time I've played. What is it called?
ALL: Poker.
PARIS: Look, why don't we make things a little more interesting. Forget the chips. Let's bet on tomorrow's work detail, all right? Whoever wins this hand gets the morning off.
CHAKOTAY: I'm in.
Espelhando Crusher na TNG, Paris diz para esquecer as fichas (que obviamente não valem nada) e oferece uma aposta física.
Fora do universo
Está bem claro que os atores e escritores também não faziam ideia. Apesar do roteiro constantemente referenciando a afirmação de Gene Roddenberry de que a Federação é uma sociedade "pós-escassez" sem dinheiro, a atriz interpretando Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) falhava diferente :
Generally, with most beings, I could just sense what they were feeling, so I was empathic.
Why I was in the poker game, I will never know, because poker's about sensing when people are bluffing, and there I was in a poker game every week. I don't think you ever actually saw me win bundles of money but I'm sure, off screen, at some point that was what I did.
como o showrunner Ronald D. Moore :
It is a strange platitude that we used on the show, the need for money was gone and everything was about bettering yourself. It was no longer about any kind of material gain or personal gain, everyone was just trying to be a better person So none of us could understand what that mean or how that society functioned. It all seemed very vague. None of the writers took it seriously. We all kind of laughed about it and joked about it. We all had to pay homage to it because that was something that was built into the structure of the show. At every opportunity we tried to sneak in ways. How do you play poker if you don’t have currency? Again The Original Series had credits and currency and we never understood why they could do all these great things and we couldn’t. It was very odd.