Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse: Gambling Traditions in 2026

The Year of the Fire Horse will begin on February 17, with festivities continuing through til March 3rd, and it is an exciting time for gamers. While first and foremost a family celebration and cultural festival, testing your luck with games of chance is deeply woven into the tradition. Even though gambling for real money remains nearly completely illegal. It has been since 1949, with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Yet games of chance are still held, informally, around the New Year is quite common. It can range from playing Mahjong or dice games in the living room, between families and friends, to the other end of the spectrum, where gamers head to Macau or Singapore to celebrate the New Years and hit the landbased casinos. Chinese New Year is packed with symbolism, and a big part of that is welcoming Spring, warding off evil spirits, fostering good fortune, and family unity. Testing chance in games is part of many rituals – with some keeping it symbolic with no money on the table – while others preferring to indulge.

Classic Chinese New Year Games

Perhaps the most traditional of games played around Chinese New Year is mahjong. Created in 1846, this game has loads of variations, plenty of which are associated with gambling, but the New Year’s traditions are more of a social activity than one about making money. It is something to bring the family together, prompting interaction and mental problem solving – with many positive neurological functions.

Though the game is shrouded in symbolism, as many games around this time of year are. Each household has its own superstitions around Mahjong, some of the most common and bizarre of which are that taping a player’s shoulder is bad luck, going to the bathroom and washing hands can fix bad luck, and that winning the opening game is a precursor of bad luck.

Mahjong is a tile game, and these can come in many formats, with different themes and arrangements. Card games are also quite common, including Dou Dizhu (fight the landlord), Guandan (passing cards), and Ban Luck (Chinese blackjack). Dice games are not left out of the picture either. While the card and tile games are more skill based – in that your decisions can impact the final outcome and thus you have some over control these outcomes – dice games are down to pure chance. Liar’s Dice, Fish-Prawn-Crab and Hoo Hey How, are traditionally betting games, but many families bring out their dice sets to play these at New Year’s. And, of course, more well known dice games in Asia such as Sic Bo.

Other popular Asian games around this time are the Vietnamese Xoc Dia, and the Chinese bean-guessing game, Fan-tan.

Cultural Symbolism of New Years

The unifying themes of Chinese New Year are renewal and fortune, relating to the transition to spring and the opening of a new year’s cycle. Of course, many people go further, interpreting the combination of the 12 zodiac animals and 5 elements, using them as a fortune telling device. In 2025, we had the year of the Wood Snake, which is seen as a year based around planning, slow growth, and long-term moves instead of drastic impacts. The Fire Horse, which we are about to enter into, is an energetic year that focuses on fast progress, but it is also associated to volatility and impulsive decisions.

You can interpret it any way you want, such as important decisions coming up in your love life or see it as a sign to focus on your financial independence and make changes in your work life. From a gambler’s perspective, it basically says we are leaving the year of patience and strategy, heading into a year of bold moves and volatility. Superstitions can play a massive role in how people gamble.

The gambler’s superstitions and rituals do not just end there. There are plenty of individual and collective superstitions, and that is without touching on the nuanced personal rituals gamers may develop.

Lucky Numbers

One of the most common gambler’s supestitions is that some numbers are luckier than others. You get it all over the world, from Brazilian gamers playing Jogo do Bicho to the daily Indian Matka players. Most lucky numbers traditions relate to lotteries, where you have lots of numbers, and a big grand prize pot for beating the odds and picking the right numbers. When in Macau or Singapore – or any of the top Asian landbased casinos – don’t be surprised if you see the following numbers:

• 8: wealth and prosperity
• 6: smooth progress and consistency
• 9: longevity and long-lasting success

You won’t see the number 4 popping up a lot, as it sounds similar to the Chinese word for death. Betting in increments of 8, such as 88 or 888, is quite common. As is plugging these numbers into casino games where they appear – such as roulette. From the buy-in amount to the cards or tiles in the games, these are the numbers that are traditionally lucky.

Behavioral Superstitions

Avoiding arguments, bad language and talking about losing is something of a taboo. You don’t want to attract the spirits of bad luck, and so gamblers have different etiquette and behavioral habits when they are playing for real money. The colour red is seen as a protective and lucky colour, so you may see lots of people donning red garments or accessories. Winning and losing streaks are also interpreted differently. From a strictly objective viewpoint, these are the result of variance, and they have no bearing on how you are playing, how much you stake, or which game you choose.

However, in superstitious circles they can be markers of fortune telling. Some players don’t want to quit winning streaks – as they don’t want to cut their luck short. Others may see losing streaks as a test of patience – if you can emotionally mount the losses – your luck should change. Losing may be interpreted by some, at this time of year, as a means to shake off all the bad luck of last year. You are going to have good fortune in the next – so get rid of as much bad luck as possible. There is just no way to stress it enough – the most dangerous thing a gambler can do is assume previous results can impact the next. The game runs on chance, and the probabilities don’t change because you are on a winning or losing streak.

Personal Zodiac Signs

Every year in the Chinese calendar is tied to an animal sign, and YOUR animal is the sign of the year you were born in. This is known as běn mìng nián in Chinese. When your birth year animal returns, the superstitious symbolism is amplified. It can bring turbulence, more volatility, and make you more vulnerable. A lot of people become more cautious during these years, as they don’t want to push their luck or make any big decisions.

Others may see it as a more impactful or important milestone in their life, and look for guidance in the symbols. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water are all associated with different virtues, which some gamers translate to pointers for their gaming strategies.

• Wood: Growth, creativity and expansion. For gamblers: patience and long-term plays
• Fire: Passion, instensity and action. For gamblers: high reward bets and aggressive plays
• Earth: Stability, balance and practicality. For gamblers: Conservative bets and steady, low variance plays
• Metal: Discipline, determination and strength. For gambles: Strict limits and disciplined staking
• Water: Intuition and adaptability. For gamblers: flexible strategies and changing approach based on results

Gambling Tourism Spikes at New Years

Apart from state lotteries, gambling remains completely illegal in China. On the mainland, there are no landbased casinos, sports betting shops, or any physical venues where you can play games of chance for money. Instead, Chinese gamers head to nearby areas and countries with casino resorts and gambling facilities. The most popular are the Macau Casinos and Singapore casino resorts. Those gambling hubs see an uptick in visitors during the Chinese New Year. Visitors who travel for the shopping outlets, premium leisure holidays, or for the gambling.

The casino floors can get pretty packed during the New Years festival, and the most popular games for Asian players are baccarat, poker, blackjack, slots, and the classic Sic Bo.

Comparing Chinese to Western Traditions

We did an article earlier this year on the New Years eve lottery frenzy that takes place in America (and many other Western countries), highlighting some of the key trends of Western gamers. The time between Christmas and New Year’s sees a surge in lottery ticket buying, with many people seeing it as an opportunity to test luck and perhaps start the year with a big bang. While there were 10 new millionaires in America at the beginning of 2026, it was not really a coincidence brought on by the New Year. And, unfortunately, there is a high chance that some of those lottery winners will go bust in the next few years.

Because operators take full advantage of the holiday season. They pack their shelves with loads more Millionaire Maker, Christmas Specials, and other lottery products, capitalizing on the holiday cheer and superstitions. With more lotteries, there will be more winners. But it doesn’t increase your chances of winning, the only thing it guarantees is more revenue for the lottery makers. That is not to say you shouldn’t play these New Year’s lotteries, but just know that they don’t create a better opportunity to win than any other time of the year.

Western traditions do not have the same depth of symbolism around lotteries, they are perhaps more focused on the potential to get rich quickly. In China, the games of fortune are traditionally more inclined towards fortune telling, as a means of testing the waters and seeing what the New Year has in store. But at the end of the day, jackpot or not, good fortune or poor luck, you should always play safe and not buy into superstition or hype. Gambling should be a form of entertainment, and not an obligation or a means to become an overnight millionaire. Keep the games fun, and stay within your limits.