The Most Notable Chinese Gambling Games – Brief History and Rules

Mahjong – An Ancient Remedy for Depression in China

We will start with one of the most played traditional Chinese gambling card games – Mahjong. Even though today it is prohibited in China, the game continues to intrigue players in underground casino locales. It attracts Chinese players due to the fact that it requires personal technique and expertise combined with а pinch of luck and good fortune. Also, each tile is a symbol of something and may be explicated in various ways. As specified by a new study from the University of Georgiа playing Mahjong decreased the chances of depression among older Chinese and takes care of their mental health.

Mahjong is among the top gambling games with dice played with 144 tiles and a set of two dices by four players. For the decoration of the tiles are used ancient Chinese illustrations and features. The name of the game is Mahjong because its main goal is for participants to gather the greatest hand of 14 tiles named Mahjong. The images on the tiles are dragons, bamboos, seasons, flowers and other typical Chinese symbols.

The rules of Mahjong are simple. It is separated into 16 rounds. At the beginning of every round, the entrants throw a dice, and the person with the highest number becomes the dealer. Then the 144 tiles must be placed upside down and mixed well so that every participant grabs 13 tiles which are kept out of sight from the rest of the players.

The remaining tiles are piled up upside down so that contestants may pull them out and compile their winning hands. The purpose of the game is to leave and take tiles with the aim to collect melds that might be three different patterns such as the Chow, the Pung, and Kong. The Pung is made up of 3 alike tiles, the Kong 4 same tiles and the Chow 3 identical tiles. A winning hand called Mahjong must contain a mix of Melds and a set of two to compose a 14-tile successful combination. The winner must announce it by shouting loud ‘Mahjong’.

The game consists of 16 rounds, every round the dealer changes with the player to the right. The winner is the player who manages to collect the highest number of points, as a reward he receives the whole staked amount of money.

Pai Gow – A More Compound Version of Dominoes

Pai Gow is one of the most popular gambling games in Ancient China which has a long history of about 1000 years. The Western World compares it with the Dominoes, even so, Pai Gow is a lot more complicated gambling game, not just a simple entertaining occupation like Dominoes. It may also be mistaken with the well-known casino game Pai Gow Poker, which is based on cards. The two games are totally different, nevertheless, they have one similarity – winners are those players who manage to prepare the best two hands.

In Pai Gow the participants are separated into 7 players and 1 dealer, which play with 32 tiles with numbers. At the beginning of each round, all dominoes must be turned upside down and very well mixed up before being separated into 8 bunches of 4 dominoes called ‘woodpiles’. Players may jumble these as long as they wish, and then place their bets.

Following each wagering, all participants including the dealer receive one pile of 4 dominoes, which must be used to prepare two two-tiled hands– the front and the rear hand. The goal of Pai Gow gamers is to defeat both dealer’s hands. Their high hand must be higher than the dealer’s high hand and their low hand must be lower than the dealer’s low hand. In order to win and grab their bet, they must make two successful hands. For a loss of their bet they must prepare two weak hands and they receive their stake back if they fail one hand only which is called a draw. The game seems easy until you recognise that there are 36,000 acceptable woodpile composites.

Pai Gow has gained popularity because it is one of those Chinese games of chance which require more good fortune than logic and player’s strategy. Nevertheless, it’s a challenging game because players must remember the sequence of hands and tiles in order to define which hands defeat the rest. Another great advantage of the game is the relatively low speed– gamblers make not more than 30 hands per hour.

Keno – A Chinese Game of Chance with Legendary History

Keno is one of the most popular gambling games in China which had risen hundreds of years ago with the main goal to collect funds for the construction of the Great Wall of China. Not only is its story enthralling, but also Keno is a game which is still enjoyed and legitimate in China, and is played in the greatest international land-based and online casinos.

As one of the easiest Chinese games of chance Keno is an interesting mixture of lottery and bingo. The gamblers need to select 5-10 digits from a set of 80 numbers, and then look forward to check whether some of the 20 digits generated by chance with the help of a random number generator (RNG) software. For each matched number the players receive winnings.

Even though Keno has Chinese origin, the game actually comes from the French “quine” in other words “set of five”. There is a legend that the game was represented to the Western world by Chinese settlers who arrived in America to toil on the railroads. Finally, Keno found its home in brick and mortar and online casinos.

Nowadays Keno is predominantly an electronic game which has extremely simple rules. First of all players must choose their type of Keno game, then set their bets according to their budget and select 2 to 10 digits from 1 to 80. Shortly after that Keno will generate 20 numbers at random with the help of a RNG software.

In case the players have chosen the same numbers, they are rewarded in accordance with the pay rules of the relevant Keno game. The size of the payouts increases inversely the number of the initially chosen digits by the players. The chance of winning increases in proportion to the selected numbers.

In most of the casinos which offer Keno games, players may avail of an automated function which allows them to play their favourite numbers up to 10 times. Afterwards, they may select a new serie of numbers or use the old set as long as they wish. Keno is one of the Chinese games of chance that do not demand any skills.

Keno has gained popularity in China due to its simplicity and the relatively high payouts despite the low wagers. Chinese players like the game because it has easy rules and is actually 100% game of chance without any necessity of skills. The value of the placed bets is often irrelevant, as the payouts for the winning numbers could be notably high. You may read more about these type of gambling games also in our dedicated article best online keno casinos.