Play Baloot, Jakaro, Ludo and Speed ♠ with friends, and talk in the Majlis

Jakoz is a free games app for playing with friends: the Gulf favourites Baloot, Jakaro and Speed ♠ (Spades), the colour card game ONO, classic Ludo and Dama (checkers), and Majlis voice rooms where you can just hang out and talk. It runs in your browser at jakozgaming.com, and an Android app is in testing on Google Play.

Yes. Every game, voice chat and the Majlis are free, and nothing you need to play costs money. Optional looks such as frames, banners, dice, boards and tokens cost Gems: every player gets 20 Gems free, and more come with gem packs. See the Jakoz shop.

No. Open jakozgaming.com on any phone, tablet or computer and tap Play now. You can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app.

No. Pick a name and a picture and you are playing in seconds. If you want to keep your player when you change phone, tap Save my player with Google in your profile.

Open Baloot, Jakaro, ONO, Ludo, Speed ♠ or Checkers, tap Play with friends, and share the link or the 6-letter room code. Friends who open the link join your room straight away, even if they have never played before.

Yes. Jakoz is as much about people as games: chat and talk by voice at the table, add players you enjoy as friends, message them privately, see when they are online, and meet in a Majlis voice room any evening. See how to make friends online safely.

Baloot (بلوت) is the most popular card game in the Gulf: four players in two teams, 32 cards (7 to A). After 5 cards and a face-up card, players call Sun (no trumps) or Hokm (trumps), play 8 tricks and collect points; the first team to 152 wins. See the Baloot guide.

Jakaro (جاكارو) is the Gulf’s team race game with marbles and cards: four players in two teams move their marbles round a 72-hole board, and each card moves them differently (the 7 splits, the 5 moves any marble, the Jack swaps, the 10 can burn a card). The first team with all 8 marbles home wins. See the Jakaro guide.

ONO is a fast colour-and-number card game for 2 or 4 players, in the same family as Crazy Eights: match the top card’s colour or number, hit the next player with Skip, Reverse, +2 or Colour +4, pass hits on, and tap “ONO!” when you are down to one card. The first to empty their hand wins. See the ONO guide.

Speed is the Gulf way of playing Spades: four players in two teams of partners sitting opposite each other. Everyone bids how many tricks they will win, spades beat every other suit, and the first team to the target score wins. See the Speed ♠ guide.

Yes. Chess is a 2-player game on Jakoz with the full rules: castling, en passant, promotion (you pick the new piece), check, checkmate and draws. Play a random opponent online, a friend with a code and voice chat, the computer at easy, medium or hard, or two people on one phone. Tap or drag the pieces. See the Chess guide.

The Majlis is a voice room for up to 8 friends, no game needed. Start one from the home screen, invite friends with one tap, and talk on loudspeaker or with a headset. See the Majlis guide.

Every dice roll and every card deal happens on the Jakoz game server, not on the players’ phones, so nobody can change their luck. Cards are shuffled with a secure random generator.