He then counts off the buttons in groups of four. Players place bets on whether the last division will contain one, two, three or four remaining buttons. Studious types keep dense, detailed charts of the results, which, they suppose, help divine a pattern in the sublime randomness of the button pile. The handful of video poker machines are even lonelier, and for good reason. This being Macau, most players gladly do battle until they blithely convert their winnings into nothing.
Blackjack games are also rare.
At the Casino Jai Alai, a warehouse-size emporium near the ferry terminal, only one blackjack table was spotted. The Mandarin Oriental had two. Not that professional card counters would want to ply their trade here, anyway. The casinos of Macau, operated under a government franchise by the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, are controlled by a man named Stanley Ho, who, it is widely rumored in Hong Kong and the States, has intimate relationships with some unsavory characters. Ho is richer than God and almost as powerful.