Exploring Barney's gambling addiction on a Very Special 'HIMYM'

It's possible that you need to watch the same TV shows that I watch, but do you feel like you've gotten a lot of lectures on the evils of gambling recently?

Last Wednesday was particularly didactic, starting with a Bones episode that saw Booth heading to Vegas and confronting his lust for the tables (while Dr. Brennan caught a mean streak of beginner's luck). An hour later, on ABC's The Nine, Kim Raver's Kathryn was forced to reevaluate the reevaluation of her romantic life when she saw the dark side of Tim Daly's Nick over a poker table. Also sporting an unexplored gambling problem was the psychopathic Jeff (Simon Baker) on CBS' Smith. Strangely, the combined viewership for those three shows couldn't compete with a feisty hour of Deal or No Deal. But the "What the heck is wrong with TV viewers?" question is a subject for another story.

Instead, let's revel in the discovery that Neil Patrick Harris' Barney has been hiding a bit of a gambling addiction from his How I Met Your Mother friends. The dark secret came out during Monday (Nov. 13) night's HIMYM, fittingly titled "Atlantic City."

When Lily and Marshall decide to round up the gang for a quickie A.C. weekend, they're surprised when Chinese businessmen keep approaching Barney and quoting back his Barney-isms, including "Suit up!" and "Legen... dary." But when Marshall and Lily discover that they need $5,000 to go to international waters and get hitched (A.C. isn't Vegas in the easy wedding department, it seems), Barney steps up and confesses that he once lost his life's savings on regular gambling trips. Confronting his demons, Barney enters into a no-limit game that includes cards, dominos, dice, the Wheel of Fortune and a bevy of attractive women hiding a jelly bean. It doesn't make much more sense in context, but it's a hoot.

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