| Real
Casinos> 2007
- Real Casinos News Archive>
First Mahjong World Champ Crowned
Hong Kong player awarded the gold medal and a $500 000
cheque
Hui Chung-Lai, a Hong Kong player who has more than 50 years of
experience in the ancient game of Mahjong this week clinched the
inaugural World Series of Mahjong Championship title in Macau with
a score of 423.11 points. He received the golden Mahjong Champion
medal and a US$ 500 000 check from the CEO of World Mahjong Limited,
Mr. John Hardyment.
Two other Hong Kong players achieved second runner-up and fourth
runner-up, while the third runner-up went to the Taiwanese actress,
Yu Chieh-Ping.
The three-day, first annual World Series of Mahjong, held at the
Wynn Macau Resort from June 15 ended play in the early morning of
June 18 at 12:30am. A total of 265 Mahjong players from China, Hong
Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, U.S., U.K. and Denmark participated.
Sponsor PacificNet has worked closely with the World Series of
Mahjong and other partners to promote the game of Mahjong via the
internet as well as mobile internet portals. Two players - Cui Jian
and Feng Zhibin who qualified online through a website jointly organized
by 3Q1 and PacificNet, made it to the final 32, each bagging a lucrative
prize of US$ 5 000. PacificNet also launched "Mahjong Mobile
Pact", a java- based mobile game designed to help players better
understand the rules of the game and to allow them to practice their
Mahjong skills anywhere on a Java- enabled mobile phone.
Tony Tong, Chairman and CEO of PacificNet commented, "While
the World Series of Mahjong has come to an end, we would like to
congratulate all of the participants. It has been our pleasure being
the designated telecom and mobile provider for the Mahjong competition
with the largest purse in the world."
According to industry forecasts, mobile online games will become
vastly more popular with the advent of 3G networks in China. Forecasts
frequently note that online and offline mobile gaming differs greatly
in terms of their service models. Online gaming uses a telecom service
model earning revenues from traffic fees during play, while offline
mobile gaming is simply a game application downloaded onto a handset
for a small fee.
The forecasts predict strong growth for WAP, JAVA and BREW, while
the proportion of SMS-enabled games will drop. With over 400 million
mobile phone users, China has already become the largest mobile
population in the world. Moreover, the number of mobile users is
still growing rapidly and has far exceeded the number of PC based
internet users, which is about 120 million, in China.
|
