Online Casino Games in Asia

Asians have a rich history with casino gambling. The Chinese invented Keno as a state-ran lottery that financed building the Great Wall. In ancient India entire kingdoms were won and lost on rolls of dice. In time, Asian and European gambling merged and games such as craps, blackjack, baccarat and Pai Gow took their modern forms. Today there are countless games of both Asian and European origins popular at online casinos. In this article I’ll discuss these games but first I’ll cover recommended betting sites for the area you live.

Asian Online Casinos

Understand Asia is a massive continent that accounts for almost 60% of the world’s populations. Depending which nation you live in, the language, currency and gambling laws are unique. This can be a confusing topic as most residents of China will want to use a casino that accepts Chinese debit cards. Those in Thailand are looking for casinos that accept Baht and transfers from Thai banks. Similar is true for residents of other countries. We’ve done all the hard work and have provided detailed guides for each individual country that can be accessed via this site.

In this article I’ll cover online casino games for a general Asian audience. Visitors from certain countries may find some of the games mentioned are not supported in their market.

The table below lists the 5 best Asian facing casinos. I’ve chosen these for a large number of reasons. Firstly, they support Asian languages and currencies. They also have local language support and are extremely reputable with long histories of fair play. The one thing to note is that this list is quite general and some of these sites do not accept players in certain Asian territories such as Hong Kong and the Philippines. I encourage you to read the country specific articles linked on the left hand side in order to find the best casinos for the country you are based in.

Live Dealer Games

One of the biggest innovations in online gambling that has taken place in recent years is the advancement of live dealer technology. Live dealer games allow players to make bets on their computer for games that are actually taking place live on a physical gaming table with a human dealer. Using the latest in webcam rendering technology you’ll see an attractive female dealer deal out the cards, spin the wheel, or roll the dice. There is usually a chat box where you can chat with the dealer as well. One great aspect of live dealer games is it is easy to confirm the games are 100% fair.

A standard interface for a live dealer game at Bodog88, pictured is live baccarat

Generally speaking, the games one can play with a live dealer in Asia are Baccarat, Blackjack, Roulette and Sic bo. One site supporting all these games is www.bodog88.com. You can either visit their site to learn more or visit our Asian casino game section where we explain how to play all the most popular games here.

Slots

Slot machines have been around since the latter half of the 1800’s and today account for a huge percentage of worldwide gambling revenue. Starting as a simple device that required matching three symbols these are now available in all sorts of different formats. In Las Vegas slots account for approximately 48% of all gambling revenue. In Macau, slots are widely available, for example over 1500 machines can be found in City of Dreams alone, but account for only 5% of total gambling revenue.

However there are other Asian nations where slots make up over half the market. Specifically, Japan has over 4.5 million slot machines, which is more than any other nation in the world. However, this statistic is slightly misleading as more than 50% of them are pachinko machines.

No doubt, when it comes to online gambling, slots are hugely popular. While this might seem like a simple topic we actually have a complete guide to online slots. It’s important to know that many websites give special bonuses to slot players. These come as deposit bonuses, percentage of losses, or rebates based on turnover.

Slot machines come in all shapes, forms and sizes. The numbers of reels differ, as do features such as bonus rounds, free spins, and jackpots – some of which are progressive. Some are interactive while others are alot more basic and feature less bells and whistles.

Casino Games with Asian Origins

When it comes to Asian casino games, some are played online for real money while others are not. Some of the games that real money casinos often fail to include are the Chinese games Fan Tan and Pai Gow tiles, India’s popular game Andar Bahar, and Bpauk Daeng from Thailand. This names only a few of the more popular ones not available for real money play. The ones actually available at are as follows:

• Baccarat – This is my far the most popular game played in Asia. In fact, in 2011 it accounted for 91.4% of all gambling revenues in Macau, which is the hub of the Asian casino universe. 100% of Asian casinos have a selection of Baccarat games available. Some even offer a variant called commission free baccarat, while most offer live dealer baccarat games as well. You can read more about baccarat in this guide.
• Mahjong– Originating in China, where it was invented over 2500 years ago, Mahjong today remains one of the most popular games played. This is not only true in China but also in Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Long, Taiwan and Japan. While not technically a casino game, it is available online in several formats.
• Pachinko – Is the most popular game played at Japanese casinos. While it’s not exactly the same, at www.bodog88.com you can find the games Potshot and Soccer Shot which are games similar to what you’ll find at Japanese Pachinko parlors.
• Sicbo – Sicbo is played in Macau casinos under this name, but can be found in other places such as the Philippines under the name hi-lo. It’s also popular in the US due to Chinese immigrants bringing it there in 20th century and is played in the UK after being approved by their gaming commission in 2002. As mentioned this game can be played with a live dealer online.
• Pai Gow Poker – As mentioned in the intro to this section Chinese domino games are very difficult to find online for real money. However the poker version of Pai Gow is hugely popular. The majority of casino sites include this game. This includes Vietnamese casinos as the poker version is very popular with Vietnamese players.

Other Games

One of the best features of online gambling sites is variety. Some of the other games this article has not yet covered which are available found in Macau as well as online, include blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Three Card Poker, war, craps, roulette, keno and video poker. Outside of these there are tens if not hundreds more such as let it ride, red dog and casino holdem which are far less popular than the ones already mentioned.

We’ve done our best to cover the most popular casino games in Asia and will continue to update and expand our content on a regular basis. Feel free to leave us a comment.