Dustin Hoffman is taking a gamble.

The 72-year-old movie star has agreed to star in a TV show, “Lucky,” an HBO pilot created by David Milch, the eccentric producer/writer responsible for such hits as “Deadwood” and “NYPD Blue.”

Hoffman will play a career criminal just out of jail with a gambling jones. “Lucky” will revolve around the West Coast horse racing world.

Dennis Farina (“Law & Order“) has also been cast.

Hoffman has never done series TV before — although he won an Emmy in 1986 for the TV version of “Death of a Salesman.”