With such a vast population, China’s entertainment market has been coveted by overseas powerhouses for decades. We’ve seen Hollywood try to break in, with China allowing a select few films to get through each year. Bumblebee happened to be “saved” by the Chinese box office, which provided 51 per cent of its overseas cume. Still, it’s a very tough audience to crack, especially as many other mediums don’t appeal or aren’t as accessible.
One that continues to hold strong, and once had people across China flock to Nevada, is that of baccarat. In 2023, casinos in Macao – a small, special administration region with many casinos in the South China Sea – saw some $5.6 billion in revenue from VIP baccarat alone. It’s not just the VIPs who love baccarat, either. The card game plays very well into the luck-based superstitions common in Chinese culture, making for a hit game at all nearby casinos.
Consistently boasting appeal to Chinese players
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Baccarat and VIP baccarat tables have long been a huge business for casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. Predominantly, this is down to Chinese spending. In fact, in October 2016, it was reported that the Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino was opened specifically to appeal to this audience. It was decked out in red, had bilingual staff, restaurants that are familiar to Chinese cities, and they removed anything that may be seen as unlucky.
Superstitions and little rituals would seem to be part of the entertainment factor, and not just the gambling. In Macao, many players will peek at their cards, turn them, and then peek again, often creasing the cards so that they can’t be recycled into the shoe. Others will blow on the cards to rid them of bad numbers. Trends in the wholly randomised game are also of big interest, with a succession of wins for one hand over the other often drawing a crowd.
Why does baccarat draw such a crowd?
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Baccarat’s primary appeal is in its luck-based play, simplicity, and use of common lucky numbers. Whether you play at a decadent casino with hefty minimum bets or live baccarat online at your own pace, the game itself is very much the same. In each round, you bet on the banker, player, or a tie. A win for the player pays at 1:1 while the banker pays a little less as a commission, while the rather unlikely tie returns 8:1, usually.
So, it’s essentially a 50-50 game. Western players generally prefer games that they can “beat,” like poker or blackjack, whereas Chinese players generally like to lean into the more luck-based games. As you basically only have two betting zones, and the goal is to get to nine – the highest representative of great success in Chinese numerology – baccarat appeals to the numerology superstitions, accessibility elements, and luck-based wins.
On top of this, many casinos will lean into other commonly held superstitions to enhance the appeal of the baccarat tables. Red felt is a very common sight because red represents good fortune. The concepts of Feng shui can also play into this. With a table being to the west side and in sight of a door, it’ll offer a sense of good luck under the ideals of feng shui.
Baccarat is a very straightforward game that the player doesn’t have any influence over, which is why it has so much appeal to superstitious gamblers who want to test their luck. It’s wildly popular in Macao and Las Vegas among VIP and non-VIP Chinese players, funding a large part of the revenue gained in these gambling hubs.