The satta king game is an ancient ritualistic method of gambling in Indonesia and has been developed from several generations of oral traditions and woven into national and regional customs. Unlike the bazaar, it does not have a single vendor but several vendors that sell a variety of goods, including dried fruits, vegetables, meats, shellfish and game. Matka is a type of satta that has no age limit. This makes it legal in Java and other Indonesian islands where adult men and women meet and have sexual intercourse until one dies or until Matka’s death occurs, which usually happens after two years of marriage.
Matka, satta and kuda-kuda are the three traditional forms of Matkhar. The satta king result is a lottery like game where numbers are drawn in sequential order. A person who gets the highest number wins the game.
There are four subkingrams in a satta. The first one is called the ‘king result’, the second one is the ‘prime result’ and the third one is the ‘queen result’. If any of these four things are missing from a person’s birth certificate, he cannot play the game. To be able to join the league of state players, every person needs to have a birth certificate for himself and each and every one of his children.
Another interesting tradition is that every Christian child between the ages of seven and nine is required to go to church once a week and use the satta king game as part of their religious routine. It is believed that this ritual helps them better connect with their religion. Other rituals are more interesting. For example, for some, it is believed that by sleeping with a white silk data while doing the ‘yena seksom’, or eating the ‘yena manang’, or wearing the ‘mooli’ –the most important, auspicious item of daily wear, they will receive the best possible favor at the court of the mahoms.
The most famous satta king game is the shingle shindig. The game can be played in several different ways. In the Vishuddha shindig, the players divide themselves into pairs and then sit opposite each other on the edge of a platform made of four strips of cloth, one on each side of the platform. The shindigants then perform a series of tasks using the four shingle pieces that come attached to the ends of the platform.
Disporiencies such as a lack of presence of mind, failure to see the situation, failure to understand the opponents, being tired or hungry, fear of the opponent, or the like, are not taken into consideration when assigning a data result. The same principal applies to a disputed matka in which there is no definitive satta king. Matka satta results can be disputed by either party. If the player finds the opponent’s matka unacceptable, he should inform the tournament officials. Such a request is approved and the match will continue with another team, at the venue where the disputed matka was fixed.
