Being a European gambler is both a blessing and a curse, I assure you! It’s a blessing because gambling is completely legal in most EU countries – you can go to UK, Spain, France, Germany, wherever you want, and then you can walk into a casino and spend a good couple of hours enjoying yourself. You can’t really do that in America or Asia, where gambling is only legal in certain places, which, trust me, are very few and far in between. But it’s also a curse because European gambling kind of lacks individuality. Sure, we’ve got the standard games – roulette, slots, blackjack and all that jazz, but we don’t really have anything that’s distinct and unique, that makes European gambling different from its foreign counterparts. I propose that we make gambling more uniform by bringing some foreign games to Europe! At first you may not agree with my ideas, but just wait until you know exactly what we’re missing!
3. Pai Gow
Pai Gow is basically the Asian equivalent of poker, except you play against a dealer, so it’s a lot more accurate to call it poker in blackjack’s clothing. It’s immensely popular in regions of Asia where gambling is legal, and with good reason – the game is fun! Basically, both you and the dealer get seven cards, and it’s your job to use your cards to form two poker hands out of them. The dealer will do the same. If both of your hands beat the dealer’s, you win and get to double your bet. If both of them lose, so do you, and if one wins, but one loses, it’s a push. As you can imagine, pushes are more common than wins or losses, so playing Pai Gow allows you to extend your gambling experience without spending too much money.
2. War
Come on, you must have played war when you were little! The basic rules are that each player draws a random card and plays it face-up on the table. The higher card wins, and if the two cards are identical you declare war and get to play more cards until the conflict is resolved. Obviously, this children’s game relies entirely on chance, which is why it’s perfect for a casino, and as a matter of fact has been adopted by several venues in Vegas! Pretty cool, huh?
1. Pachinko
Oh, what wouldn’t I give to play pachinko! For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Pachinko is basically Japanese slots. Since gambling (or any gaming that relies purely on chance) is illegal in Japan, the Japanese had to get creative in order to have their own slot. The rules of pachinko are that you get to drop a ball from the top of the screen and then watch it hit obstacles on the way down until it enters a pocket. The harder the pocket is to reach, the more tickets it brings you, which you can use to exchange for a toy or some other object that you can later resell for money. If we remove the roundabout way of getting prizes, Pachinko can be a fantastic addition to European casinos!