The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fan-tan \Fan"-tan`\ (f[a^]n"t[a^]n`), n. [Chinese (of Canton) in an-tan-kun gambling house.]
A Chinese gambling game in which coins or other small objects are placed upon a table, usually under a cup, and the players bet as to what remainder will be left when the sum of the counters is divided by four.
A game with playing cards in which the cards are played in sequences upon the table, the one who first gets rid of his cards being the winner.
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "fan-tan".
Then he took on running fan-tan and pakapoo joints, and he got to be a big man, because if any of the larrikin crowd got playing up Jimmy could knock him cold.
In the middle of the room assorted lawbreakers gathered round a table were playing fan-tan at the top of their lungs.
They had raided three gambling joints but had, curiously, left five much more prosperous ones untouched even though they were on the same floor of the same tenement and he could hear the click of mah-jong tiles and the cries of the fan-tan croupiers.
They had raided three gambling joints but had, curiously, left five much more prosperous ones untouched even though they were on the same floor of the same tenement and he could hear the click of mahjong tiles and the cries of the fan-tan croupiers.