Chinese Gambling Games
February 15, 2007
Many of today’s popular casino games were introduced to American casinos by Chinese immigrants.
One of these games is the Pai Gow Poker game, which combines the rules of American poker and a traditional Chinese tiles game called Pai Gow. Pai Gow means Make 9 and is one of the oldest games that you can still find in today’s land based and online casinos all over the world.
The game is played with cards (not tiles as the original) and uses the traditional poker hand ranking. Each player is dealt seven cards and his aim in the game is to form the highest possible two poker hands (one hand of five cards and another of two cards). Each player has to beat the banker that can be either the casino dealer or one of the players who can afford paying the players winnings.
Sic Bo is another ancient Chinese game that influenced the American gambling industry. The game was brought by Chinese immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century in the US and today is a very popular casino game played online and in land based casinos in Macau, the US and the UK.
Sic Bo means Dice Pair and is played on a special table with three regular dice. The players place their bets on the table, toss the dice and then the outcome is set by the combinations of the three dice. Each combination has a different payoff according to a payoff schedule, which vary from one casino to the other.
Traditional Fan Tan (not to be confused with the card game of the same name) was the most popular gambling game among Chinese gamblers but today its glory faded away. It was brought in US sometimes around 1890’s by Chinese emigrants and in that period you could find in every city Fan Tan houses full of passionate gamblers. These days, the game can be found in some casinos in Macau and in a few online casinos.
The old Fan Tan was played with any objects like 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 the odds are 1: 4. 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.
Mahjong is the most popular game brought by the Chinese culture. The ancient game spread all over the world in many variations. Also, the internet gambling industry is full of mahjong games in a large variety.
Mahjong was developed by Confucius around the 500 BC. It was brought to the US during the 1920s and soon was very popular especially among women. During that period of time the game was played in a special environment, in rooms decorated in the Chinese style with waiters wearing traditional customs.
Mahjong developed during the 1930s in the American version and also was founded a National Mahjong league. In 1998, the China State Sports Commission had set a standard set of rules that will differentiate the illegal gambling game from the skill game.
The online version of the game is called Mahjong Solitaire and is a matching game of the classic Chinese game that uses the Mahjong tiles. Mahjong Solitaire can be found online in a large variety of layouts and versions and recently gained a wide popularity.
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