For women the top three games are: Contract Bridge, Auction, and Pinochle.
For men the top three games are: Contract Bridge, Poker, and Pinochle.
Getting access to cards was not difficult. The Red Cross distributed cards to soldiers in hospitals or in recreation centers. Families would also send a deck of playing cards out to soldiers. Families could purchase the decks of cards from local general or department stores.
As dice are small and easy to put in a pocket, the number one game for soldiers during World War Two was undoubtedly: Craps. During the World War II, the Street version of the game was very popular and was played by the soldiers who used their blankets as the gaming surface. There was no wall to stop the dice from rolling out so they used blanket rolls to prevent the dice from falling.
So popular was craps (and probably still is) that John Scarne , a professional magician and gambling authority for YANK magazine, worked out the odds. He then had printed 2,000,000 copies of the odds for service men to paste in their helmets.
After analyzing craps John Scarne drew three conclusions
1. Craps is an almost perfect gambling game: the shooter has a 49.293% chance
of winning.
2. Soldiers gamble $300 million a month.
3. Most of their games are on the level. Meaning they are fair.