Gambling in Macau

Gambling in Macau has been legal since the 1850s when the Portuguese government legalized the activity in the colony. Since then, Macau has become known worldwide as the Monte Carlo of the Orient.

Gambling tourism is Macau's biggest source of revenue, making up about 50% of the economy. Visitors are made up largely of Chinese nationals from the mainland and Hong Kong. With the entry of large foreign casinos from Las Vegas and Australia, Macau overtook the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenues in 2007.

Until Western-style casino games were introduced in the 20th century, only Chinese games were played, the most popular being Fan-Tan. Generally, gambling in Macau can be divided into three different categories: casino games, horseracing and greyhound racing. There is also sports betting and a number of lotteries. At the present time, Macau does not license online gaming operations.

Macau has 33 casinos, of which the biggest is The Venetian Macau. They all operate under a government franchise and under a common set of rules.

Many forms of gambling are legal there, such as blackjack, baccarat, roulette, boule, Sic bo, Fan Tan, keno and slot machines.

Poker was introduced only in August 2007, in an electronic table format at Galaxy Starworld casino. The first live poker tournament was the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau event in November 2007. Shortly thereafter, in January 2008, the government of Macau published the official rules for Texas hold 'em poker games in Macau. In February 2008, Grand Lisboa Casino added the first live-dealer cash game tables in Macau. In May 2008, 'PokerStars Macau' opened at Grand Waldo Casino. In November 2008, Texas Holdem' Poker opened at Wynn Macau and the Learn to Play table is available. 'PokerStars Macau' moved to a new location at the Grand Lisboa Casino in March 2009. Today, Wynn Macau, Venetian, Hard Rock Casino , StarWorld and Grand Lisboa Casinos offer live-dealer cash game poker tables, and only Grand Lisboa Casino has live poker tournaments every weekend.

Gambling has been legal in Macau for a long time beginning in 1851 where there was a licensing system for gambling houses until 1863. Beginning in 1934, casinos' ownership and operation was centralized where through private negotiations, some franchises monopolized the operation right of all casinos. The casino industry has been controlled by the STDM monopoly for 39 years but, this changed in 2001 when casino licenses were offered to other casino operators, including American companies such as Las Vegas Sands Sheldon Adelson and Wynn Resorts Steve Wynn and then later on May 18, 2004, the Sands Macau casino opened near the Macau Ferry Terminal.

Casino poker chips are special tokens representing a fixed amount of money. In the gaming industry they are more generally referred to as Checks or Cheques; the difference being that a 'chip' caries no value, such as those used for roulette vs. a 'cheque' which carries a specific value and can be cashed in for money.

The vast majorities of authentic casino chips are 'clay' chips but can be more accurately described as compression molded chips. Contrary to popular belief no gaming chip going as far back as the 1950s have been 100% clay. Modern clay chips are a composition of materials more durable than clay alone. At least some percentage of the chips is of an earthen material such as sand, chalk and or clay similar to that found in cat litter. The process used to make these chips is a trade secret, very expensive, time consuming and varies slightly by manufacturer. Additionally, the edge spots or inserts, as they are sometimes called, are not painted on as they can sometimes appear to be. In fact they are areas where the clay has been punched out of the chip and then replaced by hand with a new piece of clay of an alternate color; it would then be at this point the chip is placed under extreme pressure and heat, approximately 10,000 psi 70 MPa at 300 °F 150 °C , hence the term compression molded Chips .

The printed graphics on clay chips is called an inlay. Inlays are typically made of paper and are then covered with a thin film of plastic which is applied to the chip prior to the compression molding process. During the molding process the inlay becomes permanently affixed to the chip and cannot be removed from the chip without destroying it.

Ceramic chips such as those made by ChipCo International were introduced in the mid 1980s as an alternative to clay chips and are still very common in casinos as well as being readily available to the home market. Ceramic chips are often referred to as clay or clay composite but they are in fact solid white, injection molded, ceramic disks, which are simply printed on.

Bud Jones are an alternate style of chip and are one of the very few injection molded plastic chips used in casinos. They are produced by Gaming Products International and are not produced for the home market.

The chips used in American casinos rarely weigh more than 10 grams and are usually between 8.5 and 10 g. There is no official weight however and some, particularly coin-inlaid chips, can weigh more. The chips sold for home use vary substantially more, sometimes weighing as much as 13.5 g, depending on manufacturer and construction.

Common designs for home use depict the six faces of a die or the suit symbols around the edge on the face of the chip. They are typically manufactured with injection molding technology using ABS plastic. Some chips are molded around a small metal disc, called a slug, for weight.

European chips often come in Mother of Pearl. The higher value chips are often shaped like plaques.

Colors

Typically colors found in home sets include red, white, blue and sometimes black; however, more recently a wide assortment of colors have become readily available, particularly in lower-quality ABS type chips.

$2.50 chips are almost exclusively used for blackjack tables, since a natural a 21 on the first two cards dealt to a player typically pays 3:2 and most wagers are in increments of $5. However, the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey has used pink chips in $7.50-$15 and $10-$20 poker games. Low-denomination yellow chips can vary in value: $20 by statute in Atlantic City and Illinois which, oddly, also uses mustard yellow $0.50 chips ; $5 at most Southern California poker rooms; $2 at Foxwoods' poker room in Ledyard, Connecticut and at Casino del Sol in Tucson, Arizona; and $0.50 at Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Blue chips are occasionally used for $10, most notably by statute in Atlantic City. In Las Vegas and California, most casinos use blue or white for $1 chips.

Chips are commonly available in $1000 denominations, depending on the wagering limits of the casino in question. Such chips are often yellow or orange and of a large size. Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and other areas, which permit high wagers typically, have chips available in $5000, $10000, $25000, and higher denominations; the colors for these vary widely.

Each casino has a unique set of chips, even if the casino is part of a larger company. This distinguishes a casino's chips from others, since each chip and token on the gaming floor has to be backed up with the appropriate amount of cash. In addition, with the exception of Nevada, casinos are not permitted to honor another casino's chips.

The security features of casino chips are numerous. Artwork is of a very high resolution or of photographic quality. Custom color combinations on the chip edge spots are usually distinctive to a particular casino. Certain chips incorporate RFID technology, such as those at the new Wynn Casino in Las Vegas.

Counterfeit chips are rare. High levels of surveillance, along with staff familiarity with chip design and coloring, make passing fake chips difficult. Casinos, though, are prepared for this situation. According to one report, a Canadian casino removed all chips from the gaming floor and replaced them with new sets with alternative markings, which resulted in the arrest of the attempted counterfeiters.

Casino chips used in tournaments are usually much cheaper and much simpler in design. Because the chips have no cash value, usually chips are designed with a single color usually differing in shade or tone from the version on the casino floor, a smaller diameter, and a basic mark on the interior to distinguish denominations; however, at certain events such as the World Series of Poker or other televised poker , chips approach quality levels of chips on the floor.

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Slahal

Slahal Lahal is the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast gambling game known as stickgame, bonegame, bloodless war game, handgame, or a name specific to each language. It is played throughout the western United States and Canada by indigenous peoples. The name of the game is a Chinook Jargon word. The name bone game comes from the fact that the bone sets historically used were the shin bones from the foreleg of a deer or other animal.

The game is played with two opposing teams. There are two sets of bones, and two sets of sticks 10 sticks per team during aboriginal times, but in modern times usually played with 5 sticks per team and a kick or king stick -- an extra stick won by the team who gets to start the game in some areas a kick stick is not used. When a game is in play, one of the two teams will have two sets of bones, shown above. When your team is guessing, your objective is to get the right bone, the one without the stripe. When you have the bones, your objective is to make sure the other team guesses wrong on the bones set. When the other team guesses wrong, you gain a point. When a team has the two sets of bones, two separate individuals will hide the bones and swap them around from hand to hand each person has a striped and non-striped bone. Eventually the bones are brought forward, but are concealed as to not show the other team what one has a stripe on it. The game is usually accompanied by drumming and singing used to boost the morale of the team. The side that has the bones sings, while the other tries to guess. The musical accompaniment is also sometimes used to taunt the other team. Gambling could be done by players, or spectators of a match, placing bets on teams, or individual matches within the game between one guess and the other team's bone hiders.

Oral histories indicate that slahal is an ancient game, dating to before the last ice age.citation needed In the Coast Salish tradition, the Creator gave stickgame to humanity as an alternative to war at the beginning of time. Thus the game straddles multiple roles in Native culture -- it is at once entertainment, a family pastime, a sacred ritual and a means of economic gain through gambling. These juxtapositions are sometimes difficult to comprehend for the Western mind, but to many members of the Native community they are woven together effortlessly as a harmonic whole.