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Casinos and gambling are a huge part of Asian culture and have been for centuries. In fact, Vegas is no longer considered the gambling capital of the world. That title has been taken over by the tiny nation of Macau, which is off the coast of China.
You’ll notice many good luck charms in Chinese restaurants or even just spending some time watching other Asian television programming. That’s because luck, chance, and fortune are tied into the culture.
The casinos in Macau cater largely to Asians, so paying attention to which games are available there can be helpful if you want to know which Asian casino games are worth trying.
In this post, I list some of the most popular Asian casino games along with notes about how to excel at each of them.
1 – Sic Bo
One of the first games I ever played in a casino was called sic bo, which is played with three 6-sided dice.
“Sic bo” means “dice pair” in Chinese.
I was familiar with the probabilities when rolling three dice because I played Dungeons and Dragons as a teenager.
Besides baccarat, sic bo is probably the most popular game in any Asian casino. It’s also popular in Atlantic City, which has a devoted Asian clientele.
Many Las Vegas casinos no longer offer sic bo, although many of them might have a single table available.
The game of sic bo reminds me a little bit of roulette, because you have a table full of betting options. The payoffs for all the bets are always at a rate lower than the odds of winning.
Unlike roulette, though, sic bo doesn’t offer a host of bets that all have the same house edge. The casino’s edge varies based on which bet you take in sic bo. The best thing to do, mathematically, is to always take the bet with the lowest house edge.
Betting on small (or betting on big) is your best bet. The house edge is 2.78% for either of those bets. A bet on small wins if the total of the three dice is less than 11, but you lose if there’s a 3. A bet on big wins if the total of the three dice is more than 10, but you lose if it’s a total of 18. In fact, on either of these bets, if you get three of a kind, you lose.
Most of the other bets at sic bo have a house edge greater than 10%. Those bets just aren’t worth making, although you’ll see people placing those bets all the time.
2 – Baccarat
Baccarat isn’t specifically an Asian game, but it’s the most popular game in Macau. In American casinos, slot machines dominate the gambling floor. In Asian casinos, baccarat tables do.
Baccarat seems complex, but that’s mostly because the rules are complicated. There’s no strategy to winning at baccarat, and the odds are almost as good as betting on a coin toss with your buddy, which is close to a 50/50 proposition.
You can find plenty of descriptions of baccarat, how to play, and its variants, but here’s the essential thing to know about the game.
Always bet on the banker, as that’s the bet with the lowest house edge (1.06%). You CAN bet on the player, but you face a slightly higher house edge (1.24%).
But never, under any circumstances, bet on a tie. The house edge for that bet is 14.36%.
Those percentages vary slightly based on how many decks and which other rules conditions are in effect at your table, but they’re not too far afield at all.
3 – Fan Tan
Fan tan uses a cup and a wand along with a stack of white buttons to play. You play on a large table, and the middle of that table is covered with a plastic dome. The edges of the table are where the players make their bets.
The game begins when the dealer puts the cup over a random number of buttons. You can then choose from any of the bets on the table. After that, the dealer uses the wand to count how many buttons he had in the cup.
These buttons are counted off in groups of four, and the outcome is determined by the last set of buttons, which always consists of one, two, three, or four buttons.
The payout odds for all of the bets are the same as the odds of winning, but the casino takes a 5% commission. This makes the house edge in fan tan 5%, regardless of which bet you place.
4 – Pachinko
Pachinko reminds me of a pinball machine, only instead of being oriented horizontally, it’s oriented vertically. It’s basically the Japanese answer to slot machines.
In fact, instead of casinos, Japan has pachinko parlors, some of which also offer slot machine games.
It’s illegal to bet real money in Japan, so pachinko is played for balls, which are later exchanged for money or other prizes.
For an end run around legal gambling, the pachinko market is huge. Revenue from pachinko parlors is more than that of gambling in Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore.
5 – Pai Gow (and Pai Gow Poker)
Pai gow is basically an Asian version of dominoes. The tiles are put into stacks of four. There are eight of these. Then, players make bets.
When the bets are all placed, players each get a stack of tiles and have to use those four tiles to create two hands of two tiles each. One of these is the “front hand,” and the other is the “rear hand.”
The player wins if both his hands beat both of the dealer’s hands. The player loses if both his hands are beaten by both the dealer’s hands.
If one hand wins, and the other hand loses, it’s treated as a push. A push is what happens in casino gambling when there’s a tie. The player doesn’t lose his bet, but he doesn’t get any winnings either.
Pai Gow Poker is an Americanized version of pai gow that’s played with playing cards instead of tiles. Both land based and online Pai Gow Poker use poker hand rankings, but the gameplay is similar.
Pai Gow Poker is a great casino poker game to play, by the way, because it’s relatively slow and results in a push a lot of the time. This results in a lower than usual hourly loss rate when compared with other casino table games.
6 – Niu Niu
You won’t see niu niu in many (or any) American casinos, but visit some of the gambling halls in southeast Asia, and it’s ubiquitous. You can also find versions online in casinos catering to Asian gamblers.
Niu niu is a card game where the playing cards have the same values they would have in baccarat:
- Aces are worth one point.
- Numbered cards are worth their ranking (e.g. the two card is worth two points).
- The jack, queen, and king are worth zero points.
Any time the total becomes 10 or greater, the number is converted to a single digit. A total of 11 becomes a one, a total of 13 becomes a three, etc. The 10 is just dropped.
You can bet on either or both of the following:
- Double
- Equal
Each player gets five cards, and so does the dealer. The cards get sorted into whichever hand would be best. Here are the possible hands, from best to worst.
- A niu niu is a three-card hand worth zero points and a two-card hand worth zero points.
- A three-card hand worth zero points combined with a two-card hand worth more than zero points is the second best hand. The higher the number of points in the two-card hand, the better the hand is.
- Any hand where you can’t make a three-card hand with zero points.
If there’s a tie, you compare the highest ranked card in each hand to determine the winner. Aces always count low for this purpose.
If there’s still a tie, the suit of the highest ranked card breaks the tie. See the suits from high to low.
- Spades
- Hearts
- Clubs
- Diamonds
If you placed an “equal” bet, you win even money if you chose the winning side. But you have to pay a 5% commission.
If you placed a “Double” bet, you win a prize based on a pay table, but you still pay a 5% commission.
7 – Yee Hah Hi
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If you ever wanted to play sic bo but without all the counting, you could try Yee Hah Hi. The game is a variation of sic bo. But instead of numbered pips on the dice, each side has a picture on it.
Yee Hah Hi dice have six different symbols in three different colors.
- The Coin
- The Crab
- The Fish
- The Gourd
- The Rooster
- The Scorpion
The symbols come in the following colors.
- Blue
- Green
- Red
You can bet on things like “all are the same color” or “two of the dice are the same color.” The house edge for this game is actually surprisingly good at just 1.11%.
Conclusion
That’s my list of seven Asian gambling games worth trying. But it’s not even close to a comprehensive list. You probably have some favorite casino games that are also popular in Asia.
Which games would you add to this list?
Chinese Mahjong is a game for four players that originated in China. Chinese Mahjong involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of chance. Depending on the variation which is played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in success.
In Asia, Chinese Mahjong is also popularly played as a gambling game. In the game, each player is dealt either thirteen or sixteen tiles in a hand (depending on the variation being played). On their turn, players draw a tile and discard one, with the goal of making four or five melds (also depending on the variation) and one pair, or 'head'. (Casino in Macau)
Winning comes 'on the draw', by drawing a new or discarded tile that completes the hand. Thus a winning hand actually contains fourteen (or seventeen) tiles.One of the myths of the origin of Chinese Mahjong suggests that Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, had developed the game in about 500 BC.
This assertion is likely to be apocryphal. According to this myth, the appearance of the game in the various Chinese states coincided with Confucius' travels at the time he was teaching his new doctrines. (Chinese Slots)Also, this myth claims that Confucius was fond of birds, which would explain the name 'Chinese Mahjong' (sparrow).
However, there is no evidence of Chinese Mahjong's existence before the Taiping era in the 19th century, which eliminates Confucius as a likely inventor.
There is still a healthy debate about who created the game. One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during the Taiping Rebellion created the game to pass the time.
Another theory is that a noble living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1870 and 1875. Others believe that around 1850 in the city of Níngpō two brothers had created Chinese Mahjong from the earlier game of Mǎdiào.
This traditional Chinese game was banned in its homeland in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded. The new Communist government forbade any gambling activities, which were regarded as symbols of capitalist corruption. (China Casino Guide)
After the Cultural Revolution, the game was revived, and once again Chinese Mahjong has become a favorite pastime of the Chinese, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and elsewhere.
CHINESE FAN-TAN
A square is marked in the centre of an ordinary table, or a cube piece of metal is laid on it, the sides being marked 1, 2, 3 and 4.
A square is marked in the centre of an ordinary table, or a cube piece of metal is laid on it, the sides being marked 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The banker puts on the table a double handful of small buttons, beads, coins, dried beans, or similar articles, which he covers with a metal bowl, or 'tan koi'.
The players then bet on the numbers, setting their stakes on the side of the square which bears the number chosen. (Chinese Gamble)
(Players can also bet on the corners, for example between No. 2 and No. 3). When all bets are placed, the bowl is detached, and the 'tan kun' or croupier uses a small bamboo stick to remove the buttons from the heap, four at a time, until the final batch is reached.
If it holds four buttons, the backer of No. 4 wins; if three, the backer of No. 3 wins, and so on. A 5% commission is removed from the stake by the banker, and the winner wins three times the amount of his stake thus reduced.
Chinese Fan-Tan is also the name of a card game, played with an ordinary pack, by any number of players up to eight. (Chinese Casino)
When the deal has been certain, the cards are dealt separately, and any that are left over from a stock, which is placed face downwards on the table.
Each player provisions a fixed stake or ante. The first player can enter if he has an ace; if he has not he pays an ante and takes a card from the stock; the second player is then called upon and acts likewise till an ace is played.
This is put face upwards on the table, and the loads are built up from the ace to the king. The pool goes to the player who first gets rid of all his cards. If a player fails to play, having a playable card, he is fined the amount of the ante for every card in the other player’s hands.
Fan Tan used to be the most accepted gambling game among Chinese gamblers but the glory days of Fan Tan have already passed. During the 1890s, Chinese immigrants brought the game to the United States. At that time, every Chinatown in American City had several Fan Tan houses that were always full of enthusiastic gamblers.
Nowadays, you can find Fan Tan in some casinos in Macau as well as in some online gaming sites. Traditional Chinese Fan Tan, not to be confused with the card game of the same name, used to be played with any objects such as coins, dried beans or small buttons on a table with a square marked on it. Fan Tan. The object of the game is pretty simple and odds are 1: 4.
The play begins with the banker puts on the table a pile of objects then covers them with a bowl. Each player has to bet on one of the numbers that mark the four sides of the square, or on one of the corners of the square.
After the bowl is removed, the croupier removes four of the objects each time until the last group remains. If 1 object is left, then the player who placed a bet on 1 wins the pot, and so on.
PAI GOW POKER
Chinese Pai Gow poker (also called Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai Gow (in that it is played with playing cards bearing poker hand values, instead of Pai Gow's Chinese dominoes).
Chinese Pai Gow poker (also called Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai Gow (in that it is played with playing cards bearing poker hand values, instead of Pai Gow's Chinese dominoes).
The games of Chinese Pai Gow poker and Super Pan-9 were created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf.The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a single joker. It is played on a table set for six players, plus the dealer. (Play Chinese Poker)
Every player tries to defeat the banker (who may be the casino dealer or one of the other players at the table)
Object of the game
The object of Chinese Pai Gow poker is for a player to create two poker hands out of the seven-card hand he/she is dealt by the dealer: a five-card hand, and a two-card poker hand.
The object of Chinese Pai Gow poker is for a player to create two poker hands out of the seven-card hand he/she is dealt by the dealer: a five-card hand, and a two-card poker hand.
The five-card hand's value must exceed the two-card hands. The two-card hand is often called the hand 'in front' or 'on top', or the 'small' or 'minor' or 'low' hand. (China Casino Guide)
The five-card hand is called the hand 'behind', or the 'bottom' or 'high' or 'big' (as they are placed that way in front of the player, when the player is done setting them).
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The deal
The cards are drag your feet, and then dealt to the table in seven face-down piles of seven cards per-pile. Four cards are unused regardless of the number of people playing.
The cards are drag your feet, and then dealt to the table in seven face-down piles of seven cards per-pile. Four cards are unused regardless of the number of people playing.
Betting location are assigned a number from 1 to 7, starting with either player is acting as banker that hand, and counting counter-clockwise around the table.
A number from 1 to 7 is randomly chosen (either electronically or manually with dice), then the deal begins with the corresponding position and proceeds counter-clockwise.
One common way of using dice to decide the dealer starting number is to roll three six-sided dice, and then count betting spots clockwise from the first location until the number on the dice is reached.
If a player is not sitting on a exacting spot, the hand is still assigned, but then placed on the discard pile with the four unused cards.
Hand rankings
Five-card hands use standard poker hand rankings with one exemption: in most Nevada casinos, the hand A-2-3-4-5 ranks above a king-high straight, but below the ace-high straight A-K-Q-J-10.
Five-card hands use standard poker hand rankings with one exemption: in most Nevada casinos, the hand A-2-3-4-5 ranks above a king-high straight, but below the ace-high straight A-K-Q-J-10.
At most casinos in California and Michigan this rule doesn't apply; the A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest possible straight.
The joker plays as a bug, that is, in the five-card hand it can be used to complete a straight or flush if possible; otherwise it is an ace.
In the two-card hand it always plays as an ace, except in several southern Californian casinos where the joker is completely wild. Gal sports betting online.
Determining a win
If each of the player's now-separated hands beat the banker's corresponding hand then he wins the bet. If only one of his hands beats the banker then he pushes. If both of his hands lose to the banker then he loses.
If each of the player's now-separated hands beat the banker's corresponding hand then he wins the bet. If only one of his hands beats the banker then he pushes. If both of his hands lose to the banker then he loses.
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On each hand, ties go to the banker (for example, if a player's five-card hand loses to the banker and his two-card hand ties to him then he loses); this gives the banker a small advantage.
If the player fouls his hand, meaning that his low hand outranks his high hand, or that there are an incorrect number of cards in each hand, there will be a penalty: either re-arrangement of the hand according to house rules or forfeiture of the hand.
In casino-banked games, the banker is generally required to set their hand in a pre-specified manner, called the 'house way', so that the dealer does not have to implement any casino strategy in order to beat the players.
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When a player is banking, he is free to set the hand however he chooses; however, players have the option of 'co-banking' with the house, and if this option is chosen then the player's hand must also be set in the house way.