real name: Remy LeBeau

Gambit's place of birth was in or around New Orleans, LA. Remy considers himself a Cajun with his roots firmly grounded in the Big Easy where he spent his youth, and he speaks with a Cajun accent. As shown in Gambit #1, Gambit was stolen as a baby by the Thieves Guild for someone called the Antiquary but was later taken and hid from the Antiquary by Jean-Luc LeBeau.

Hints place him as the best or one of the best in the Marvel Universe and quite capable of getting into, out of, and stealing most anything without the use of his mutant powers. Gambit is an expert in hand to hand fighting especially the use of a bo staff and has incredible aim with throwing objects.

Unlike most of the other X-Men, he has been known to try to talk his way out of a fight or more likely to buy time to set up his plan and obtain an advantage. He can be very sneaky, observant and patient as seen in Uncanny X-Men #274-276, and does not mind looking weak, afraid, trapped, or hesitant to have his foe underestimate him or to wait for his chance.

He beat Wolverine in a mock battle with his cunning and understanding of people, and was willing to wait in Uncanny X-Men #349 until he had some idea of what he was up against rather than jump head long into almost certain death. In contrast, if not for dumb luck, Joseph's "we must escape now" plan would have killed them all.

"...and he lives for the excitement and thrill of the game, the adrenaline rush, loves the company of interesting women, and is an accomplished flirt. "

Gambit has been shown to have excellent control over this power and has used it in many different ways. For instance, in an issue of X-Men Unlimited, he charged up a container until it just disappeared... his own form of "recycling". In one of the Wolverine appearances, he shot Wolverine 50 feet in the air by cupping his hands and "charging away", which would seem to imply he charged the immediate air molecules, so when Wolverine put his foot in Gambit's hands... up he went. During the X-Men's Shi'ar adventure against the Phalanx, he charged a door and hit it to make the door explode to get it out of the way.

It has long been hinted that Gambit also has some type of "psionic" abilities and this has been called his "charm" power on occasion. There have been implications that it could be empathic in nature and the exact strength of it is unknown.  When Gambit was first introduced, it was hinted that Gambit could possibly hypnotize people with words or body language. In Uncanny X-Men #266, the story suggests that Gambit's ability to smooth talk people went beyond sex appeal or the gift of gab.

Before we first see Gambit in that issue, the Shadow King attempts to telepathically look for Storm and makes the following statement: "Interesting. My telepathy seems unable to lock onto her psyche. Some form of mental interference." Then followed by the next scene showing Storm and Gambit together.

In issue #3 of the first Gambit Limited Series, on Page 16, Candra tells him, "Do not try your Cajun charm, mutant! It does nothing for me...."

Page 29: In the first panel we are treated to Remy, up close to Candra, giving her one of his grins. She just has a dopy, glazed over look in her eyes. He kisses her in the next two panels, to which she replies: "Get out of my sight, thief... before I come to my senses and have you killed."

Page 30: Candra states, "He stole the elixir straight from under my nose! And I let myself be charmed!"

Albeit, these might not seem like much, but for Candra to not realize that Remy's reaching down her dress for a vial in her cleavage when she was wearing such a tight outfit can mean only that either something was going on mentally, the man is downright magnificent with his hands, or that was one heck of a kiss! Or all of the above; take your pick.

It has also been stated that even the Professor has had a hard time just scanning Gambit thoughts, and the Professor has commented that Gambit is the X-Man he knows the least.

In a previous panel, the Shadow King says, "Very snappy patter, my young friend. I dare say, given a decent opportunity... you might seduce even me."

Lastly, there is no indication how strong this power is but Gambit obviously has at least decent control over it. If he does have the ability to "charm" people, he obviously has respected and cared about the X-Men enough to not use his power to influence them. Otherwise, he'd never have had to endure the distrust they have frequently thrown at him.