Bourré (also commonly known as Bouré and Boo-Ray) is a trick-taking gambling card game primarily played in the Acadiana region of Louisiana in the United States of America. The game’s closest relatives are probably Spades and Poker; like many regional games, Bourré sports a large number of variant rules for both [...]

Liar’s poker is a bar game that combines statistical reasoning with bluffing, and is played with the eight-digit serial number on a dollar bill. Normally the game is played with a stack of random bills obtained from the cash register.The object is to make the highest bid of a number that does [...]

Anglo-American
The primary deck of fifty-two playing cards in use today, called Anglo-American playing cards, includes thirteen ranks of each of the four French suits, spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (♣), with reversible Rouennais court cards. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its [...]

Early history
The origin of playing cards is obscure, but it is almost certain that they began in China after the invention of paper. Ancient Chinese “money cards” have four “suits”: coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads of strings, and tens of [...]

A playing card is a typically hand-sized piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games [...]

A card game is any game using playing cards, either traditional or game-specific.
The deck or pack
A card game is played with a deck (common in the US), or pack (common in the UK), of cards intended for that game. The deck consists of a fixed number of pieces of printed cardboard known as [...]

View from a player going to discard a tile in an ongoing gameplay.
Players may read the name of the discarded tile out loud.
The flower tile on the left should be replaced by a tile from the dead wall promptly.
Each player is dealt either 13 tiles for 13-tile variations or 16 tiles [...]

Basic equipment: chips, tiles and dice.
Mahjong houses provide a convenient venue for Mahjong old hands. This is a typical scene of Mahjong house in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
Mahjong, can be played either with a set of Mahjong tiles, or less commonly, a set of Mahjong playing cards (sometimes spelled ‘kards’ to [...]

In 1998 the China State Sports Commission, in the interest of changing mahjong from an illegal gambling game to an approved ‘healthy sport’, published a new set of rules, now generally referred to as Chinese Official rules or International Tournament rules. The principles of the new, ‘healthy’ mahjong are: no gambling – [...]

Beijing residents playing Mahjong in public.
Four Filipino women playing Filipino Mahjong.
There are many variations of mahjong. In many places, players observe one version, and are either often unaware of other variations, or claim that other variations are incorrect. Although many variations today differ only by scoring, there are several main [...]

Mahjong in China
Different kinds of Chinese playcards (from left to right): Bógŭ Yèzí (博古葉子), Caozhou Paí (曹州牌), Three Kingdoms Yèzí (三國葉子), Dongguan Paí (東莞牌).
One of the myths (probably originating in the West) regarding the origin of Mahjong suggests that Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, had developed the game about 500 BC. [...]

Mahjong

Players
4

Age range
> Any

Setup time
2-5 minutes

Playing time
0-3 hours

Rules complexity
High

Strategy depth
Medium

Random chance
Yes

Skills required
Tactics, observation, memory

Mahjong (Traditional Chinese: 麻將; Simplified Chinese: 麻将; pinyin: Májiàng; Cantonese: Màhjeung; or Chinese: 麻雀; pinyin: Máquè; Cantonese: Màhjeuk; other common English spellings include mahjongg, majiang, and hyphenated forms such as mah-jong or mah-jongg) is a game for four [...]

Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated. In principle, a more experienced player is disadvantaged in order [...]

A horse race at Del Mar.
Horse racing is an equestrian sport which has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times are an early example, as is the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. It is often inextricably associated [...]

Many people have formulated staking systems in an attempt to “beat the bookie” but most still accept that no staking system can make an unprofitable system profitable over time. Widely-used systems include:

Fixed stakes – a traditional system of staking the same amount on each selection. This method suits conservative punters if the [...]

Tokyo Racecourse in Tokyo, Japan.
One of the most widespread forms of gambling involves betting on horse races, most commonly on races between thoroughbreds or between standardbreds.
Wagering may take place through parimutuel pools; or bookmakers may take bets personally. Parimutuel wagers pay off at prices determined by support in the wagering pools, [...]

Though many participate in gambling as a form of recreation or even as a means to gain an income, gambling, like any behavior which involves variation in brain chemistry, can become a psychologically addictive and harmful behavior in some people. Reinforcement phenomena may also make gamblers persist in gambling even after [...]

Because religious authorities generally frown on gambling to some extent, and because of various perceived social costs, most legal jurisdictions limit gambling to some extent. Some Islamic nations prohibit gambling; most other countries regulate it. Most countries’ laws do not recognise wagers as contracts, and views any consequent losses as debts [...]