Continuously Generated Indigenous Knowledge

The Case of Prediction Techniques Based on the “Roads” of Baccarat in Macau Casinos

Abstract

Gamblers worldwide have diverse prediction techniques when it comes to gambling, which is filled with uncertainty. However, to quantify and deal with this uncertainty, existing gambling research tends to favor the use of “modern science = probabilistic thinking.” Aligning with a “Western rationality” perspective, alternative prediction techniques not based on this approach are often dismissed as “superstition.”

However, rationality is not necessarily exclusive to modern science. Can prediction techniques labeled as “superstition” be reinterpreted as alternative “indigenous knowledge” that gamblers use, employing folk imagination to address the uncertainty of gambling? This paper examines Chinese gamblers’ gambling prediction techniques in the card game baccarat at Macau casinos, focusing on the concept of “roads,” and considers them as continually generated indigenous knowledge with their own rationality and validity.