The Arizona sentinel., 1890-01-11
GAMBLING IN CHINA.
A Vice INDUCED In by OrientaIs of High
and Low Degree.

Gambling is naturally associated will
drinking, and all of the Eastern ma
tions are fond of games of chance. The
! Chinese are the greatest gamblers in The
world. The man who works for five
CENTS d day ana who has one cent set
aside for his supper will 60 to the cook
| stand and invest that cent upon the lit
! tie lottery which the man runs in con
| nectiOn with it. If he wins he may get
two dinners, if he loses he goes without.
! At Tien Tsin every peddler of cakes and
boiled bread has bamboo tube as big
around as a tumbler and in this there
are a number of sticks about the length
of knitting needle, and of the size of a
slate pencil. On the end of some OF
these sticks there are numbers, while
others are blank. The numbers
are on the ends of the sticks
which are stuck into the tube,
and the purchaser pays so much
draw. If he pulls out stick with a
number on it he has the number Of cakes
! represented by it, if not, he gets moth
ing. A common game at Chinese din
nerS is the guessing the number of fin
! gers one man thruStS out quickly be-
fore the eyes of his neighbors. If the
guess is wrong the guesser has to take a
drink of samsha. Fan tan is the great
est Chinese game of chance. 1t is
played everywhere and it is usually run
by stock companies in houses called tan
koon. These houses have two rooms, in
one which cash or copper coins alone
are played for, and in the other of which
silver and gold are used. A fan-tan
table has four numbers on it, one, two,
three and four, and it takes three men
to manage the game. At the head
sits the croupier who has a great
pile of copper cash. each with
little square hole in its middle, and
each as big around as a red cent He
gathers up a double handful of these
and puts them under a tin basin. The
gamblers who stand around the table
then put their money on one of the four
numbers, and as they do so the shroff
u cashier of the game takes an account
Of them and looks to see that the money
s not counterfeit. A third man con-
lected with the game is also present to
Day over the money to the winners. As
soon as the game is ready the basin is
taken off and the croupier, by poking an
worry rod into the hole of the cash,
1rawS away four at time. The num-
Der last left at the last drawing decides
The winning or the losing. If the money
comes out even and four cash are left the
money on wins. And if three or two
are left those putting their money on
save the amount Of their stake. All On
number l lose. 1t is in the same ratio
On the other numbers, and the gambler
has one chance Of winning, two of not
losing any thing, and one chance of los
ing. This is one species of fan-tan. An
other IS, where the gambler, if he wins,
gets three times the amount of his
stakes, but if any of the other three
numbers win he loses. There are other
kinds of games played on these fan-tan
boards as are played on the roulette ia
BILE, and the chances are in all cases
with those who run the game. Even in
paying the winnings seven per cent. is
usually taken out to defray the ex-
pense of the proprietors, and the
professionals, as usual, make
the money. China has its policy
game, which is not much different from
that known in America, and a great
deal of gambling goes on by means of
cards. All sorts Of games of chance are
against the law, but they are winked at
by the officials, who, in some cases, get
large part of their revenue from the
gambling houses. At the treaty ports
there is probably more playing than in
tbs interior and it is not uncommon for