The gambling industry has influenced our ordinary lives dramatically. Nowadays we can’t imagine the world to exist without casinos, both brick-and-mortar and online ones. Both newcomers and fervent punters wager on slots, table projects and other exhilarating games at casinos to experience a feeling of risk and amusement. And to win real money, of course!
To bring more entertainment to the playing process, both land-based and Internet casinos create exciting gaming projects for patrons. Some of the games are quite unusual, out of the ordinary, frankly speaking.
Our imagination represents a rare gift that can stun others with breakthrough ideas and solutions. The casino domain isn’t an exception here. With loads of nationalities and playing habits, one could discover a mix of unconventional gambling games that strike the imagination. In this piece, we are about to talk about some odd casino games that originated in different countries. Feel free to cast an eye over the material to widen your knowledge.
Here are some weird games we would like to present to you:
- Dreidel
- Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken
- Rodent Roulette
- Fan-tan
- Pachinko.
Let’s hit the ground running with Dreidel, a traditional Jewish game of chance.
Dreidel
This gambling game is quite popular among the Jewish people in the middle of Hanukkah, a traditional celebration of Jews. Basically, it is a dice game featuring a spinning top consisting of 4 sides. The tool is called the dreidel. When you play this game with your friends or with a family, you usually wager match sticks, coins or other bet forms. When it comes to casinos, real money prevails over raisins and other stuff people wager while playing from the comfort of their homes.
Game rules are quite plain to grasp. It is no hardship to begin playing straight away even though you are a newbie to Dreidel. Firstly, there is a special betting pot on the playing table where all punters place their wagers. One after another, players spin the top and claim prizes contingent on the side the Dreidel lands. In some cases, gamblers could grab the whole pot.
Every Dreidel side contains a specific letter in Hebrew that has the particular definition:
- The Nun symbol. It actually means nothing. Thus, a player gets zero winnings back
- Shin. Once you land the Shin icon, you should make another wager to bolster the playing fund
- Hey. Get this symbol and claim half of the pot
- Gimel. The most rewarding symbol in Dreidel. It translates to ‘Everything’. A player receives all the cash from the pot.
Finally, the game comes to a conclusion once the pot is won. After that, a new playing session starts.
Dreidel Tournaments
There has been a competitive Dreidel sport called the Major League Dreidel tournament recently. Every year the luckiest players gather in New York to decide who is the ultimate winner.
As you can see, the tournament was created in New York and hosts during the Hanukkah celebration. Away from the traditional playing rules of Dreidel, the winner of the competitions is a player with the longest spin time (it is often called TOS). The authoritative stadium for playing Dreidel is Spinagogue.
In 2007, the game found its spike in popularity. As of today, punters could relish playing such Dreidel variations as Staccabees, Maccabees or No Limit Texas Dreidel. The latter is indeed a combination of the Texas Hold’em poker game and traditional dreidel.
Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken
Imagine playing a conventional game of crosses and noughts not with a usual competitor but with a chicken. Yeah, a chicken that basically walks around a barn yelling. This scene takes place solely in the city of Atlanta and nowhere else. Therefore, once you visit Atlanta, give Tic-Tac-Toe a shot.
To win real money, you are going to face Ginger, a genuine chicken. Hefty prizes of $10,000 could be claimed if you are lucky enough to outplay your exotic opponent. Nevertheless, it could turn to be an extremely hard affair as this chicken sweeps away all competitors in its path. Sometimes people call this weird game the ‘chicken challenge’.
Following a correct move from the animal, chickens are rewarded with feed that could be delivered through a special booth. Normally, chickens are victorious in ¾ of the time, whilst the rest are ties.
Frankly speaking, it is quite simple for chickens to be trained to play the game of tic-tac-toe. As this game has fixed and well-structured rules, it is no hardship to start training chickens to make correct decisions for as long as you know the operant conditioning principles.
Striking Fun Fact about Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken
To be honest, there is one more place punters could relish playing Tic-Tac-Toe with chickens. Previously, the Chinatown district of New York featured the infamous chicken game. The thing is that there was a store owner shining on the playing board for a chicken to peck a specific spot.
Rodent Roulette
Although rodent roulette has been on the gambling scene for some time, it is kind of a strange game. We also know this game of chance under the ‘Rat Race Roulette’ name. The kernel of rodent roulette lies in having either a mouse or a rat placed on a roulette. There are several holes in the roulette for a gerbil to hide in. A player receives a payout instantly once an animal chooses the correct hole or pocket.
There are multiple activists that condemn the game of exploiting animals not in a good way. There even were precedents when such activists staged protests where the game was held.
Some incidents took place regarding running rodent roulette games in the US in the previous century. Firstly, two hosts were arrested and fined for setting up rodent roulette in California. In their defence, they said they had been rewarding the luckiest punters with coffee and ham. After that precedent, one more fellow American was pleaded guilty to hosting rodent roulette. Following an investigation, authoritative bodies found that his games were fraudulent. Harry Woodling put the cheese under the roulette holes so that mice could seek them out.
Fan-Tan
The game originated nearly 2,000 years in China. No one would argue that Asian countries produce the strangest games for casinos. For example, War and Sic Bo are widely-known examples of such games presented both at online and brick-and-mortar gambling venues. You can have access to these casino games almost everywhere.
The Fan-Tan game of chance serves as a traditional Chinese title. It is a game that is played on a surface using a cup and some other objects, for example, beads. In the past, Chinese residents used to play Fan-Tan with ivory and bone beads. The game reached its popularity peak during the 19th century with beans and coins as basic playing symbols.
Gameplay
Although a huge array of beads may be confusing for newcomers, fan-tan is a simple game to grasp. To start with, the dealer makes a message after which punters wager money on the number from one to four. The aim of the game is to guess correctly exactly how many beads would remain following the removal of beads groups of four.
The Tan Kun (the dealer) takes a cup (a tan), then covers multiple beads (60 out of 200) and finally removes the remaining beads. Finally, Tan Kun removes the cup and spreads beads into groups with the help of a bamboo stick. One of those groups is declared a winning number.
Nowadays, casinos charge fees for making certain bets. For example, 3-to-1 is a standard odd for wagering on a single combination number. Secondly, 2 numbers wagered presents a 1-to-1 payout. Finally, 3 numbers bring a 1-3 reward. Bear in mind a 5% commission taking place.
Pachinko
The Pachinko game actually presents a slot machine but with Japanese anime vibes. The strangest thing isn’t just about anime but a pinball machine. This machine has special balls that land on holes to activate a reward. Once these balls disappear, it is complicated to be given more balls. In the past, players used to purchase the balls and exchange them for real money.
As of today, Japanese residents really enjoy playing Pachinko for real funds. One of the articles showed 3 years ago that players in Japan wagered more than $200 million on this gambling game. So, the Pachinko market represents an industry with billions of dollars in income. There are more than 10,500 parlors throughout the Japanese territory.
In Conclusion
To summarise, the list of the weirdest casino games doesn’t end here. One would explore plenty of other odd projects from various countries. Obviously, these games basically hinge on the country’s traditions. So, you may not only find such games exhilarating but educational as well.
