Macao, a Portuguese colony, legalized gambling in the middle of the 19th century. Gambling as a general pastime became successful, and at one time the area was known as the "Monte Carlo of the East." In Shanghai, on the other hand, gambling was never legal. Powerful gangs took control of gambling interests so that by 1930s Shanghai was home to opium dens, gambling halls, and houses of prostitution. These were shut down when the Communists took over in the late 1940s. The British colony of Hong Kong prohibited legal gambling until the colonial government saw the financial benefits of gambling in Macao. In London, the British Parliament rejected these overtures. Eventually, Hong Kong gaming establishments were closed, and gambling went underground, with the exception of horse racing, which remained legal in the colony. The Hong Kong Jockey Club was very successful. By 1992, approximately 15 percent of the government's revenue came from gambling.
Mah Jongg, a classic Chinese gambling game played with tiles bearing names like "Heavenly Peace," "Moon from the Bottom of the Sea," or "Thirteen Orphans." This game, which, until relatively recently, was banned in Communist China, is the most widespread Oriental gambling around the world. Pai Gow, a Chinese domino game on which baccarat is based. Fan-Tan, a traditional pebble-counting game. "Fan" means "to turn over" a bowl or other container which holds stones, and "Tan" means "to spread out" stones used in the game. Belankas, a Javanese game played with a four-sided top, marked with a crab, flower, fish, and prawn. Sic Bo, a dice game. Pachinko, a pinball-type game that is said to be the most popular leisure activity in Japan. Keno, a bingo-type game that originated in China and has become a staple of lotteries and casinos worldwide. Mah Jongg Mah jongg was probably developed in China as a game for the upper classes. Before the 1920s, every Chinese province had its own variation of play and dialect name for it. The name is said to mean “sparrow,” and has been transliterated as "ma tsiang," "ma chiang," "ma cheuk," and "ma ch'iau." A sparrow or a fanciful “bird of 100 intelligences” is featured on one of the tiles. Invented by a Fisherman Legend has it that Mah Jongg was created 3,000 years ago by a fisherman named Sze who lived with his nine brothers on the shores of the East Chien Lake near Nignpo. Fishing was an important way of life on East Chien Lake, unfortunately a fisherman's catch was limited because most of the fishing was done from the shore. Sze decided he could probably catch more fish if he did it from a boat rather than from the shore of the lake. He bought several boats, and he paid a hundred fishermen from surrounding villages to fish from these boats. While the plan worked well during calm seas, when the wind picked up, and the water began to pitch the boats about, all of these "land fishermen" became seasick and had to be taken back to the shore. Sze and his family council decided that seasickness was all in the mind, and that it eventually would go away if the fishermen had something that could be used to distract them. The distraction Sze created was a game that he called "Mah Diau." The plan worked, and Sze became very wealthy. The fishermen forgot their seasickness were said to have played their game using 108 pieces of cardboard; each of the four players held 13 cards. This game, however has developed into the modern version of the game we today call Mah Jongg.
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