First, mai fan, or tan fan, “buying a singe number.” The player lays his stakes in front of the number he desires to bet on, with a narrow red card, called a rtp slot “dogs tongue,” beneath them. If the number played on is “opened” the cashier pays the player four times the sum wagered, but if one of the other numbers is opened the player loses.
Second, mai ching t’au, “buying the front of the square,” also called mai hong, “buying a row.” The player lays his money in front of a number as before, but without the red card. In this case he receives his wager back if either of the side numbers is “opened;” gets double, if the number played on is opened, and loses if the opposite number is played.
Third, mai kok, “buying the corner.” The player lays on a corner of the square. He is paid double if one of the contiguous numbers is “opened,” but loses if either of the others is “opened.”
Fourth, mai nip, “buying a twist.” The player lays his money near the end of the side, instead of at the centre, with a red card on top. If the number played on is “opened” the player receives twice the amount, or if the number on the adjacent side is “opened ” he gets it back; but if one of the other sides is opened, he loses.
The cashier pays the winnings from a money-box beside him, after deducting a percentage which alone constitutes the company’s profit, as no matter in which way a player lays his money, the chances are precisely equal between him and the company. No charge is usually made on winnings of small amount.
A player may put his money directly on the table, or he may use counters or chips instead, a supply of which, of different denominations, is usually heaped within the square. These counters consist of ts’нn tsz’, or Chinese “cash,” which represent ten cents; hak chu, “white pearls,” representing $1; hak chu, “black pearls,” $5; chessmen, $10, and dominoes5, $50. Other values are sometimes assigned to them. When counters are used, two red cards instead of one are placed beneath them, in the case of the first wager, mai fan, and one red card in the second, mai ching t’au, and the third, mai kok.
When counters are used, the player frequently deposits a bank note or his purse with the cashier, who places a Chinese playing card of the kind called ts’eung kwan p’ai beside it, to identify it, and hands a corresponding card to the player. This card the player sometimes puts upon the table with the counters representing his stakes, where it takes the place of one of the red cards. Then when a player loses and continues playing, the cashier places the counters he has lost on the ts’eung kwan p’ai that indicates his money; but if the winning are in a player’s favor, he puts one of the red cards under the player’s marker, and deposits on it the counters that represent his winning, after deducting the company’s commission. The latter is usually about seven per cent. A player is not ordinarily permitted to stake a counter representing a sum larger than that he has deposited with the cashier, although the games are sometimes conducted on credit and settlements made the next day. The companies reserve the right to decline any wager and close the game at any time. The games are opened at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and at 8 in the evening, and often at 11 in the morning on Sundays and holidays. The company always opens the game, one of its members acting as the t’an kun.
The partners sometimes take turns in keeping game, and receive twenty-five or fifty cents from the common fund each time, or one of them may be appointed to act as keeper, and then receives a salary of about twenty-five dollars per month. Each member of a company who keeps game has a book in which he records the profits and losses while he is acting as keeper. After the game has continued for about half an hour, or sooner, if the company has lost money, a settlement is made with the players, and any of them are permitted to take the table and run it for their own profit, upon paying a small rental to the company and a fee to the cashier for his services.
There are several ways in which a player may lay his stakes slot gacor upon the table:
