HSP 135-01
Albion College
Fall 02025

Discussion questions for RTB, Ch. 16
DLs: Enky & Diego

1. How did baccarat’s rise as Macau’s dominant casino game along with local cultural perceptions such as viewing slot machines as “tigers” and traditional Chinese gambling superstitions like favoring the number eight and avoiding the number four force Western casino operators to adapt their standard casino model to succeed in the Macau market?

2. How does Pachinko’s blend of chance and skill along with the legal loophole that allows players to exchange winnings for cash prizes rather than receiving money directly create a uniquely regulated gambling environment in Japan compared to traditional casinos?

3. Looking at Pachinko and the way to circumnavigate the gambling laws in Japan how would you design a game to circumnavigate some of the laws in America.? pg. 337-338

4. Why would Genting Highlands bar 1/2 the population from going into their casino, thus cutting their profit in 1/2?  pg. 350

5. Does the advent of online gambling make places like Asper, Macau, and Las Vegas obsolete?

6.  The reading says that pachinko parlors in Japan make $300 billion a year together, as compared to the $60 billion American casinos make in a year.  Why haven't American casinos introduced pachinko?  Do you think that it would attract people like other casino games?

7.  Why have we seen so many examples of popular casinos popping up where there is nothing else.  Why wouldn't a casino near a bustling city be bigger than these casinos out in the middle of nowhere?

8.  People looked down on prostitution in Macau, but it seems as if it is just a part of the atmosphere in Las Vegas.  Why is it okay in one but not the other?

9.  Why would Laorong Fu purposefully keep his employees from wearing red (a lucky color) and make his buildings white and green (unlucky colors)?

10.  Pg. 355 = Australian Kerry Packer was a both a casino owner and a high rolling gambler. If you owned a casino, would you still gamble?

11. Could Singapore’s “casinos” have done better if they where marketed as casinos and not as “integrated resorts”?

12. How charitable or useful do you think the ability to open up pop up casinos in the hopes to make money for a charity event or itself?