Macao is an old, European

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card g ...

played with

French playing cards French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...

that is related to

Baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...

. It was first mentioned in 1774, and may have originated in Hungary or Italy. It was described as being popular with the soldiers of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with t ...

during the 19th century, although the game was later banned as a game of chance.

Overview

Macao may be a forerunner of

. It is a gambling game using cards that resembles others of its genre such as Onze et Demi, Vingt Un,

Trente Un Thirty-one or Trente et un is a gambling card game played by two to seven people, where players attempt to assemble a hand which totals 31. Such a goal has formed the whole or part of various games like Commerce, Cribbage, Trentuno, and Wit an ...

Siebzehn und Vier Twenty-one, formerly known as vingt-un in Britain, France and America, is the name given to a family of popular card games of the gambling family, the progenitor of which is recorded in Spain in the early 17th century. The family includes the casi ...

. The idea of ''Macao'' is also used in a

dice game Dice games are games that use or incorporate one or more dice as their sole or central component, usually as a random device In computing, a hardware random number generator (HRNG) or true random number generator (TRNG) is a device that gener ...

of the

same name ''Same Name'' is an American reality television series in which an average person swaps lives with a celebrity of the same first name and surname. It premiered on July 24, 2011 on CBS. The series received low ratings, and CBS pulled it after fou ...

Play

The following rules are from Meyer:''Meyers Konversationslexikon'' (1908). "Macao" Each punter is dealt a card by the banker; additional cards may be 'bought'. The

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ca ...

counts as one point, Tens and

court card A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accord ...

s as nought, and the remaining cards count their pip value. The aim is to acquire nine points or as close as possible to nine points, in one's hand cards as quickly as possible. If a player's first card is a Nine, this is a ''großer Schlag'' and wins double, unless the

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

also has a ''großer Schlag'' in which case the banker collects a double stake from all players except for the punter who also had a nine, who just loses a single stake. An Eight as first card is called a ''kleiner Schlag''. Whoever goes bust (''verkauft''), i.e. ends up with more than nine points, immediately loses his stake. If the banker goes bust, all players win if they have nine or fewer points. If a player has more points than the banker, he wins a single stake; if he has fewer, he loses his stake. If a player has the same number of points as the banker, the number of cards is the decider. Whoever has fewer cards wins; if both points and cards are the same, the banker always wins.

Differences between Macao and Baccarat

In Macao a player may 'buy' as many cards as possible; but if he exceeds nine points, he loses immediately. In some variants of Baccarat the player may only draw one card. If a player exceeds nine points in Baccarat only the one place counts, i.e. a player can get worse by buying, but exceeding nine points does not necessarily mean the loss of the game. In Macao all the punters receive cards; in Baccara chemin de fer, however, only one punter gets a card and in Baccara banque only two punters (one in each half of the table).

Literary Reception

Arthur Schnitzler Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Biography Arthur Schnitzler was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarch ...

's novella, ''Spiel im Morgengrauen'', the game is named "Bakkarat" at one point, but it is clear from the clues in the novella that it is in fact the game of ''Macao''.

References

Literature

* Lentner, J.F. (1855). ''Der Plattebner und seine Kinder''. Adolf Bonz, Stuttgart. * Perles, M. (1891). ''Zentralblatt für die Juristische Praxis'', Vol. 8. Courts. * Schnitzler, Arthur (1927). ''Spiel im Morgengrauen''. Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, XXV and XXVI. * Zollinger, Manfred (1997). ''Geschichte des Glückspiels''. Böhlau. {{Banking games Banking games 18th-century gambling games Austrian gambling games Hungarian gambling games