You do have a little choice there (unlike here), but I think the same appeal is present even without the choice.

The experience is a bit like reading fortunes from tea leaves.

The fun comes from assigning meaning to the outcomes. This happens, generally, automatically as a human instinct. In traveller, the process of character creation generates a kind of narrative in your head of who the character is.

I've been thinking about these kind of experiences a lot lately.

Is it a game? I don't think a discussion of definitions is very interesting, but I would call it a game by any casual meaning of the word. Certainty, in traveller's case, a roleplaying game. But I recognize the same appeal in these zero-player games.

You're playing something, just in your own mind. The primary game isn't what's on the table, but what's in your mind. You're not committing to choices in physical (or digital) space, you have no agency there -- but there's still a rich experience happening between your ears -- full of hopes, predictions, disappointments, elation, creativity. It's like reading but you're also part author. You're not reading from a book, but from pattern matching inside randomness.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself. I have little more than the recognition of something interesting in this direction, but beyond that I can't articulate it.

This game, as the title suggests, is pure luck, based on the cards you were dealt.

In RSB, it’s real-time, and as dice are rolled to move horses forward, you can place bets on a number of spots, based on how the dice are being rolled (always by a designated player that is either part of the betting or not — recommended that they don’t bet if you have enough players).

Obviously still a lot of luck, as with most dice rolling games. But a decent amount of strategy in timing your bets, especially since bets freeze once horses get to a certain line in the game.

[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/351040/ready-set-bet

You then have people roll the dice and move the horse one spot forward if the number on the dice match the horse number.

It's total luck but a great way to explain probability to the younger kids and probability distributions to the older kids.

see f.e. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nDQEI3s_2aI

Spectator sports are basically zero-player games.

Another classic is "LCR" (Left Center Right), and one that was popular a few years back is "Yahtzee Turbo."

Our game was shorter, and only had uhh 6 tracks I think. The odds rose quite a lot for the un-favored horses, like, a lot a lot. The horses/tracks all had names, but I can't remember their names.