Curious as it looks, gamblers in China are very different from gamblers elsewhere. Chinese gamblers love the card game of baccarat. The game consists of betting against a dealer. It is proving to be the most popular casino game nowadays, both for the number of players fond of it, as well as the frequency and increasing interest they play with.

Surprisingly, they don’t seem to be interested in slot machines. Furthermore, they refer to them as ''hungry tigers'' that eat you alive! Some casinos used this to create special slot machines that allow players to ''slay'' tigers. In spite of them, they generated only about 2 percent of Macau's gaming revenue in 2004. In Las Vegas, it represented 45 percent, according to the CLSA report.

Every year, more and more Chinese gamblers increase their bets and dream about a big win. Instead of attaching a stigma to the act of gambling, Chinese feel a strong attraction towards winning. According to the investment bank CLSA’s 2005 report on “Macau Mania”, a belief in luck ''leads many to gamble their meager savings in the hope of becoming rich''. The report also described ''a much higher level of player intensity in Macau'' than in Las Vegas.

Believe it or not, some villages collect money from their poor inhabitants to bet at casinos, and send a representative on behalf of the whole village, with the hope of improving their hometown and their standard of living. For many, baccarat and other casino games are more than entertainment, a way of making their dreams come true, perhaps the only way.