How to Play Mahjong
Mahjong, also spelled majiang or mah jongg, as it is played around the world today, is not the ancient Chinese pastime you might think it to be.
Stories are often told of a lonely Tang Dynasty princess who invented the game to ward off boredom more than twelve hundred years ago. Many say Confucius himself enjoyed the game as Ma-chur, and there are even a few who claim the game entertained Noah and his family on the Ark.
In truth, however, the current game was invented only about 150 years ago. In 1846, the rules of a set-forming card game—Ma Tiao, which was similar to Gin Rummy and very popular in Shanghai—were applied to a ceramic tile game by a clever imperial servant named Chen Yu-Men.
Decades later, when China became a Republic in 1912, the game took off as a welcome diversion from troubled times. It was called “mahjong,” which means “hemp bird” or “sparrow,” because getting the winning piece is as difficult as catching the Chinese bird of cleverness.
Casino Jobs Las Vegas
How many people does it take to operate a casino in Las Vegas and what do they all do? Let’s take a sneak peek behind the scenes of casino operations in Las Vegas to see how the house turns its gaming advantage into casino jobs and where you might begin if you want to claim a position on the “winning side” of the table for yourself.
The City of Las Vegas is internationally renowned for gambling, shopping, fine dining and nightlife. Las Vegas is the leading financial and cultural center for Southern Nevada.
The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its mega casino–hotels and associated entertainment.
A growing retirement and family city, Las Vegas is the 29th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 603,488 at the 2013 United States Census Estimates.
Monte Carlo Casino and Gambling
Monte Carlo is not at all what most people think it is. To begin with, Monte Carlo is not the capital of Monaco. In fact, Monte Carlo is not even a town. Nor is it an ancient place.
No Monte Carlo Grand Prix has ever been held on its streets, and contrary to the suggestive lyrics of a once popular song, no one ever sent the Casino de Monte-Carlo into bankruptcy.
That said, Monte Carlo is a fascinating destination and one of the gems of the Mediterranean’s Riviera coast. It plays a prominent role in European culture and serves as a playground not only for the rich and famous but also as home to a diverse range of people and businesses. In fact, a large percentage of its residents are entrepreneurs.
Although Monte Carlo may not be all that it has been made out to be, in many ways it is much more. Once you move beyond the myths and mystique of Monte Carlo, you can begin to discover its true allure.
Casino Whale in the Desert
In casino lingo, the term, “Casino Whale”, refers to a gambler capable of playing at the highest stakes allowed. This is not your ordinary big-betting “high roller,” who might only wager a pesky few thousand dollars in a sitting.
The Casino Whale is among the wealthiest men and women in the world, to whom £50,000 represents not a bankroll but a single wager. A casino whale can drop a million at the baccarat table in an evening without blinking and still tip all of the staff with a smile.
Casinos are prepared to lavish their whales with comps of private jets, limousines and offers of rebates on losses where an agreed betting turnover has been reached.
Just like their namesakes in the ocean’s depths, the true casino whale prefers to play their games in seclusion. They value their privacy and demand the utmost discretion regarding their habits. The largest of them are a rare breed indeed— true billionaires.
Gambling Systems and the Pursuit of Easy Money
For centuries, the greatest minds in science, maths and engineering have used intuitive and mathematical analysis to examine the laws of probability especially when it comes to gambling systems, searching for ways to beat the odds.
Their ultimate goal: To develop foolproof gambling systems for winning at games of chance. This pursuit of easy money has led to some astounding strategies, from progressive betting and card counting to outright cheating.
Indeed, the study of Roulette once prompted Albert Einstein himself to claim, “You cannot beat the table unless you steal money from it.” Yet people do walk away from casinos with more money than they started with. It happens every day.
In fact, some players actually make a living at the world’s craps, blackjack, and roulette tables as professional gamblers. Is their success based entirely on luck? Are they involved in some form of fraud or criminal behaviour? Or have they learned a secret system, to which only a few are privy?