How to play Macao

Macao is a simple casino-style game for 3 to 6 players. All you need is a single die and a pile of chips. The game is traditionally played for stakes, but works just as well with valueless chips or points. Give everyone the same number of chips to start, for example 20.

Pick one player to be the banker for the first round. Everyone else places a stake, one chip for instance, on the table in front of them.

The goal is to get as close to 9 as possible without going over. In turn, each player rolls the die and adds up the pips. After each roll you choose to stand on your total or roll again.

If you go past 9, you are bust. You are out of the round and lose your stake to the banker straight away.

Finally the banker rolls under the same rules, trying to beat the players still standing on 9 or less. If the banker busts, the banker pays every remaining player the amount of their stake. If the banker stands on a total, the banker pays the players with a higher total and collects from those with an equal or lower one.

Winning ties gives the banker a small edge, so pass the role to the next player after every round.

Play an agreed number of rounds, ideally so everyone has been the banker the same number of times. When the last round is done, the player with the most chips wins.

Macao takes its name from the classic card game Macao, a relative of baccarat where 9 is also the best result. The dice version borrows the target but makes do with a single die.

For a little extra tension, agree that hitting 9 exactly pays double. If you like dice games in this style, try Twenty-One, where the target is 21 with one die, or the big casino game Craps.

Yes. Use points on a sheet of paper instead: everyone starts with 20 points, and stakes are added and subtracted as you go. The game is about stopping in time either way, not about what the stakes are worth.

The number comes from the card games in the baccarat family, where 9 is the best hand, and the dice version of Macao kept it. With one die giving 1 to 6 pips per roll, 9 is also a fitting challenge: one roll is never enough, and from the second roll on you can bust.