Checked on 21 October 2026 against GONE Fishing 1.0 (20 October 2026, with the 20 October hotfix). Steam app 3645890 by GONE Studios. Forum dates are UTC.

Short answer. In GONE Fishing you put a fish into the gambling pool and its point value is rerolled: a win grows the fish and a loss shrinks it [S11]. The studio changed the odds many times during Early Access, and its last full description of the formula, dated 3 May 2026, gives wins of "1.25x to 4.5x" and losses of "1x to 0.01x" [S11].

How a gamble works

The studio describes the pit as a pool where fish are placed. A fix of 21 June 2025 addressed a bug where "the most recently added fish would be gambled instead of the first fish placed in" [S3]. On 9 October 2025 the studio gave the Early Access win chance as a "35% chance" for a fish to grow "1.1-6x" [S8].

The studio gave a different figure for Jeremy Wade difficulty in the same post: "27.7% chance for the fish to grow 1.1-6x" [S8].

On 20 April 2026 the studio added a chat line: "it will now say which player gambled the fish in chat" [S5].

The dog bonus (Early Access)

On 9 October 2025 the studio wrote that summoning the dog and keeping it alive "will grant you a 5% buff to gambling" [S8]. The same post gives the effect: with the dog alive, "the odds go from 35% to 40% chance for gambling to result in a win" [S8].

The channel Zanarkan13, in the video "Gone Fishing - Deep Dive Guide - Episode 1 - Lake" (uploaded 30 September 2026), says at 1:24 to throw the dog bone into the altar: "The dog will spawn the following morning, giving you better odds on your gambling" [S12]. That video predates the full release.

Dated odds and rule changes during Early Access

Each entry below predates the full release and is worded as the studio's post words it.

DateWhat the studio wroteSource
19 June 2025"You can now gamble fish on the first map"[S6]
23 June 2025"Changed gambling odds to 65/35 (left win loss values the same)"[S7]
6 August 2025"65% chance to lose, 35% chance to win (70/30 were the previous odds)"; "Max loss is now .1 -> .01 while max win x4 -> 5.5"[S9]
22 August 2025"Buffed gamba max win from x5.5 to x6.5"[S10]
15 September 2025A gambled fish "will not rot since it has been touched by the lake entity" (rot version 1, then limited to the hardest difficulty)[S13]
9 October 2025Dog gives a 5% buff; "35% chance to grow 1.1-6x"[S8]
26 March 2026"gambling a fish will no longer prevent it from taking rot damage"[S14]
29 April 2026"Removed the ability to cast into the gambling pool due to a weird performance issue"[S15]
3 May 2026"New formula: 1.25x to 4.5x win 1x to 0.01x loss"[S11]
3 September 2026A tip now tells players what the gambling pool is when they walk on it[S16]
23 September 2026"Slightly buffed gambling for non JW difficulties"[S17]
25 September 2026"Buffed gambling"[S18]
29 September 2026"On a win, the minimum win bonus is now 1.15->1.25" and a higher "chance of a max win"[S19]
1 October 2026"Fixed a bug where gambling odds would sometimes be incorrect"[S20]

On 26 March 2026 the studio wrote "At the moment, gambling is busted" and that it did not want to nerf the odds, which is why a gambled fish stopped being protected from rot [S14].

The latest full formula in detail

The 3 May 2026 post lists the original formula as "1x to 6.5x win" and "1x to 0.01x loss", and the new one as "1.25x to 4.5x win" with the same loss range [S11]. It adds a second roll: "If your fish exceeds a 4.25x multiplier, it will be rerolled again into the max win formula which ranges from a 5x to 10x win." [S11]

What players reported

Two players posted in the Steam thread "JW Quota needs a CAP off. Please :C" on 1 July 2026. Lina Giggles wrote at 20:35 UTC that they did not think the "gamble pot" was worth it [S2]. Donut of Doom wrote at 20:41 UTC that they used to get a bigger fish "around, I'd say, 30% of the time", but now "I'd be lucky to see a positive result from the gamble mechanic ever" [S2]. Both posts predate the September buffs listed above.

Bigsexy replied at 00:46 UTC on 2 July 2026 that the feedback was appreciated [S2].

Where the pit is

In the video "Gone Fishing - Deep Dive Guide - Episode 3 - Canyon" (uploaded 6 October 2026), the channel Zanarkan13 says at 2:51 that a portal "is going to bring you straight to the gambling pit" [S21]. Just after, at 3:03, the video says "you're going to find bait crates in here" [S21]. For the full map list, see the maps page. For the sacrifice quota that fish go toward, see the daily quota page.

Trinkets and gambling

The full release post says "Trinkets are a form of gambling" [S1], and lists the trinket Gambler's Doubloon as "Chance to multiply a fish's value" [S1]. That is a trinket, not the pit; see the trinkets page.

Sources and version

Checked on 2026-10-21 against GONE Fishing 1.0 (20 October 2026, with the 20 October hotfix).