At the recent Manau festival held in Myitkyina there was a huge space – of at least a few acres – devoted to gambling and sideshow alley games. There were hundreds of different gambling and gaming outlets.

Gambling and games at the Myitkyina Manau

In this game of “wheel of fortune” most bets were significantly less than a dollar. Some gamblers were, however, running through their stacks of 1000 kyat bills. Each of those bills is worth slightly less than a dollar.

Wheel of fortune in Burma

I didn’t hang around long enough to see who ended up in front. I can, however, report that the house seemed to be doing particularly well.

Taking the money in Burma