Dragon Tiger & Sic Bo in Singapore: Rules, Payouts, House Edge and the Bets Worth Making (2026)

Why these two games rule Asian live lobbies

Walk through the live lobbies of the casinos we review for Singapore and you’ll keep seeing the same thing: rows of baccarat, and right next to them, Dragon Tiger and Sic Bo. They’re the two games that feel most at home for players who grew up with cards and dice at Chinese New Year gatherings. Big or small, higher card wins. You don’t need a strategy chart, and you can follow a round from across the room.

The appeal is speed and simplicity:

• Dragon Tiger is one of the fastest card games in the lobby. One card to Dragon, one card to Tiger, highest wins, next round. No drawing rules, no counting to 9.
• Sic Bo is three dice in a shaker. You bet on what the dice will show, from a simple “Big” to an exact triple, and the result is on screen seconds after the shaker stops.

That speed is fun, but it’s also the thing to watch. A fast game means more rounds per hour, and more rounds means more money through the table. Both games also mix very cheap bets with very expensive ones on the same layout, often right next to each other. The difference between a good bet and a bad one here is not 1% or 2%; it can be ten times the cost. Learn which is which, and these become two of the better-value games in the lobby. Skip that step and they’re two of the worst.

If baccarat is already your game, read our baccarat guide alongside this one, because the comparison matters. And if live dealer tables are new to you, our live casino guide explains how the stream, the timer and the bet buttons work.

How Dragon Tiger works

The rules fit in one breath:

1. The dealer deals one card face up to Dragon and one card face up to Tiger.
2. The higher card wins. Ace is the lowest card (1) and King the highest (13). Suits don’t rank, so the King of spades and the King of hearts are equal.
3. Same rank is a tie. A 7 against a 7 is a tie, whatever the suits.
4. Bets are settled and the next round starts.

Most live tables use an 8-deck shoe. Before the deal, you place your bet: Dragon, Tiger or Tie, plus a Suited Tie side bet at many tables. Some studios add extra side bets on each card, so check the paytable on the table you sit at.

Dragon Tiger bets, payouts and house edge

Where do those numbers come from? With 8 decks there are 32 cards of each rank. Once Dragon’s card is out, 31 of the remaining 415 cards match it, so the chance of a tie is 31/415 = 7.47%. Dragon and Tiger split the rest evenly. If a tie took your whole Dragon bet, the edge would be the full 7.47%; returning half on a tie halves it to about 3.73%.

The tie rule hor, it’s the single most important line on a Dragon Tiger paytable. It doubles or halves the cost of the main bet. The Tie bet’s payout matters just as much: at 8:1 it’s one of the most expensive bets in the whole casino, and at 11:1 it drops to about 10%. Studios differ, so open the paytable or help screen before you bet, every time you try a new table.

Durian tip: only play Dragon Tiger at a table where a tie returns half your Dragon or Tiger bet. If the paytable says a tie loses the lot, the same bet costs twice as much. Walk to the next table lor.

Dragon Tiger vs baccarat

Dragon Tiger looks like quick baccarat, and in a way it is. The difference is the price. Baccarat’s Banker bet costs 1.06% and Player 1.24%. Dragon or Tiger, even at a good table, costs 3.73%, about three and a half times as much per bet. And because Dragon Tiger rounds are quicker, you usually play more of them in the same hour, so the gap per hour is bigger still.

That doesn’t make Dragon Tiger a bad game. It’s simple, it’s fast and it’s fun with a group. But if you’re settling in for a long session with the same money, baccarat Banker stretches it further. A good habit: use Dragon Tiger for a short, quick burst, then move to baccarat for the long sit.

How Sic Bo works

Sic Bo (also known as big-small, or tai xiu in Vietnam) uses three dice. The dealer shakes them in a covered shaker, the result appears, and every bet on the layout is settled at once. Three dice can land in 216 different ways (6 × 6 × 6), and every bet on the table is priced from those 216 outcomes.

The main bets:

• Big: the total is 11 to 17. Small: the total is 4 to 10. Both pay 1:1, and both lose on any triple (three dice the same).
• Odd / Even: the total is odd or even, 1:1. These lose on a triple too.
• Single number: pick a number from 1 to 6. It pays 1:1 if one die shows it, 2:1 if two do and 3:1 if all three do.
• Two-dice combination: two different numbers, like 2 and 5, both appear. Pays 5:1.
• Specific double: at least two dice show your chosen number. Pays 10:1 (8:1 at some tables).
• Any triple: all three dice match, any number. Pays 30:1 (24:1 at some).
• Specific triple: your chosen triple, like 6-6-6. Pays 180:1 (150:1 at some).
• Totals: an exact total from 4 to 17. Each total has its own payout; 4 and 17 pay the most.

Sic Bo bets, payouts and house edge

Why Big and Small are the bets worth making

Of the 216 possible results, totals from 11 to 17 make up 107. Take away the two triples in that range (4-4-4 and 5-5-5) and Big wins 105 times out of 216, or 48.61%. Small is the mirror image. Pay that at 1:1 and the house keeps 2.78% on average. Every other bet on the layout costs more, most of them five to ten times more.

The big numbers on the layout are tempting: 180:1 on a triple six looks like a lobang. But the chance is 1 in 216, and a fair price would be 215:1, so at 180:1 you’re paying 16.20% for the dream. Bet S$10 on Big a hundred times and the average cost is about S$27.80. Bet S$10 on a specific triple a hundred times and it’s about S$162. Same dice, same table, very different evening.

Watch out for the named variants too. Tables like Evolution’s Super Sic-Bo (at Maxim88), Gravity Sic Bo (at DK88) or Extra Sic Bo (at UWIN33) can change the paytable, and multiplier versions often pay less on some bets when no multiplier lands. The edges above are for the classic layout, so check the paytable on the table you choose before you bet leh.

Roads, scoreboards and “hot” numbers

Both games come with a scoreboard. Dragon Tiger tables show bead plates and roads like a baccarat table, and Sic Bo tables list the last results, often with “hot” and “cold” numbers highlighted. They look like data, and they’re nice to have. But they are history, not prediction. Got pattern meh? No.

• Dice have no memory. Ten Smalls in a row don’t make Big more likely on the next roll. Each roll is a fresh 105-in-216 chance for Big, same as the first.
• A streak in Dragon Tiger means nothing either. Each new card comes from a shoe of hundreds of cards, so whatever came before tells you nothing useful about the next one.
• “Hot” numbers are just recent numbers. A number that came up five times in twenty rolls is not hot, it’s just what happened.

You’ll see predictor apps, “road reading” systems and Telegram groups selling patterns. None of them change the house edge in the tables above. The roads are fun to follow with your kakis, but the bet you choose, and the paytable at the table, are the only things that change your cost.

Worked examples: session stakes and the Martingale trap

Example 1: sizing a S$200 session

Say you bring S$200 and bet S$5 a round, which is 2.5% of your budget, a sensible size that survives a cold patch. Over a session you play 60 rounds, so S$300 goes through the table. Here’s the average cost of that same S$300 on different bets:

Same S$5 chips, same 60 rounds. Sticking to Big or Small costs about S$8 on average; sprinkling the Tie costs almost half your budget. That’s the whole strategy in one table: pick the cheap bets, and play fewer rounds rather than bigger ones.

Example 2: why Martingale fails

Martingale says: bet on Big, double after every loss, and the first win gets back everything plus your base bet. From a S$5 base, here’s what a losing run looks like:

Seven losses in a row is base × 127 = S$635 gone, and the eighth bet is S$640, just to finish S$5 up. Big loses 111 times in 216 (51.39%), so seven straight losses happen in roughly 1 run out of every 106. That sounds rare, until you notice each successful run only wins S$5: about 105 small wins (around S$525) and then one S$635 hole. And that’s before the table maximum or your balance stops the doubling. Progressions change the shape of your results, not the edge. Agak agak, the house still collects its 2.78%.

Your first session, step by step

1. Pick a casino that carries the game you want (see the table below), and sign up with your +65 number.
2. Verify your ID early, so a winning night isn’t followed by a held withdrawal.
3. Deposit by PayNow at GOD55 or Maxim88 (see our PayNow casinos), or by GrabPay, bank transfer or crypto at DK88 (our GrabPay casinos).
4. Decide on a live bonus, or none. If you take one, check which studios it counts before you transfer.
5. Choose a table whose minimum bet is no more than 2–5% of your session budget.
6. Open the paytable. In Dragon Tiger, confirm the tie rule and the Tie payout. In Sic Bo, confirm the double, triple and total payouts.
7. Watch one round to learn the betting timer, then bet before the last second.
8. Stick to the cheap bets: Dragon or Tiger, or Big, Small, Odd or Even.
9. Stop at your budget or your win target, and withdraw to your own bank account.

Bonuses and rebates on live tables

Here’s the part many players learn the hard way: the big welcome bonuses in Singapore are mostly slots only. DK88’s 588% pack, GOD55’s 255% and me88’s 288% all count slots, so Dragon Tiger and Sic Bo bets won’t move their turnover. For live tables, use a live-casino welcome or a live reload, and read which studios count:

One rule matters in both games: don’t bet both sides. Dragon and Tiger together, or Big and Small together, is a no-risk pattern casinos watch for. UWIN33’s terms say both-sides bets don’t count, and it can void winnings for opposite betting. Pick one side per round.

Rebates are the quiet winner for regular live players. GOD55 credits an instant rebate on live casino bets in real time, from 0.2% for Normal members up to 0.7% at Platinum, but it pauses while a bonus is running. me88 pays 0.2% to 1.2% on live casino and other bets with no turnover. On the S$300 session above, a 0.5% rebate returns S$1.50, which knocks the average cost of Big or Small from S$8.34 down to S$6.84. Our bonus terms guide explains the clauses to check, and the wagering guide covers how live-game contribution works.

Which Singapore casinos have the tables

This is what our reviews recorded in each SG lobby. Kingmaker’s “3D” games are animated quick rounds rather than a live dealer, which suits players who want speed over atmosphere.

“Not listed” means our review didn’t record that table, not that it’s missing; lobbies change, so a quick look after you log in settles it.

Where to play Dragon Tiger and Sic Bo in Singapore

• DK88: the biggest live lobby. Twenty live studios, from Evolution and SA Gaming to Asia Gaming and Sexy Baccarat, with Dragon Tiger and Gravity Sic Bo both on the menu. Its Special Live Casino Bonus is 100% up to S$500 at 35x within 10 days, from S$50; activate it before you deposit. Pay by GrabPay, bank transfer or crypto (no PayNow).
• GOD55: the best ongoing value for live regulars. Dragon tiger and sic bo across 11 studios, a 100% live welcome up to S$200 at 30x, a daily 10% live reload up to S$100 at only 8x, and an instant rebate on live bets up to 0.7%. Use SA Gaming, WM or Dream Gaming for the bonuses, since Evolution doesn’t count. PayNow, local banks and USDT in the cashier.
• Maxim88: for Evolution fans. Super Sic-Bo sits in the Evo Club row next to Lightning Dice, and Kingmaker’s 3D Sic Bo and Tai Xiu are there for quick rounds. Every S$100 of Evolution turnover is a ticket in the weekly Lucky Draw (S$46,264 in prizes every Monday), and the 50% live welcome up to S$200 is 25x. PayNow and crypto accepted.

Comparing the first two? Our DK88 vs GOD55 comparison puts them side by side, and the Singapore bonuses page lists every current SG offer. Stick to the cheap bets, read the paytable first, and these two games give you a lot of fun for the money, steady lah.

Dragon Tiger and Sic Bo are quick games, so set a budget and a round limit before you sit down, and stop when either runs out.

21+ only. Play responsibly: set a budget and stop when it stops being fun. Need help? NCPG 1800-6-668-668 or our responsible gambling page.