Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-05
CHINESE LOTTERY.
Its Unmolested Spread in
This City.
Seven Companies With Two
Drawings a Day.
Tickets Displayed and Sold Openly
on the Streets.
A Short Description of the Drawings and
the Different Ways of Marking
the Tickets.

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be about the only thing that is going on
in Chinatown, A day or two ago visit
was made to that favored locality and it
was found that in every store the sale
OF tickets was going on openly, in fact
some of the stores announced to the
world at large that they had tickets for
sale by pasting them in their windows
Copies OF the latest drawing were found
in open boxes on the street in various
places and scattered in all directions
were seen tickets of old drawings, thrown
away as useless. Inside the stores the
Chinese store-keepers sold the tickets
over the counter and all the books and
records of drawings were kept i'll plain
sight. In other cities on the Coast
where Chinese lotteries are going on
these things are kept hidden from the
general public and the police, and it is
only possible to obtain ticket after the
purchaser has passed through number
of doors which are unbolted by the
guard who carefully inspects all
strangers and refuses them admittance
if their appearance is suspicious. In
Los Angeles these precautions are un-
necessary because the police have not
been in the habit of arresting Chi
nese lottery ticket dealers. 1t is
stated that the reason why the police
are not active in this direction is because
the cases are so slow in coming to trial
in the Police Court. Several arrests
were made about a month ago and a few
more recently, but they have not yet
been tried, the motions for postpone
ment having been granted. The police,
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arrests, because the Cinnamon are al
lowed to 60 on bonds by the court and
to take back the cash bail which the po-
lice exact. When arrested, the China
men are required to deposit $50 cash for
their appearance in court, and then the
court allows the money to be withdrawn
and bonds to be furnished instead.
These are some of the reasons given for
the failure of the police to suppress the
open sale of Chinese lottery tickets.
An inquiry in Chinatown revealed the
fact that there are at present seven Chi
nese lottery companies, each with two
drawings day, in full operation in the
city. There are the Foo Tai, Bow Tie.
See Chung, Fook Tai & Co., Wing Lee
Yuen, Ching Chun Wing and one whose
name could not be translated. On
sign board on Alameda street, near Mar
chessault street, copies of the
two latest drawings of all these
companies were pasted for the
benefit of all the passers and immedi-
ately after drawing it was surrounded
by large crowd including Chinese,
negroes and Caucasians, all anxious to
compare their tickets with the drawing
and ascertain whether they had been
fortunate.
II, tod
that an immense business was done for
trade was extending at rapid rate
among the white people. For some time
past the Chinese vegetable peddlers
have carried tickets from house to house
for sale and other Cinnamon have estab-
lished regular routes over which they
go twice day. Then the Chinese laun-
dries in various parts OF the city have
been made agencies and according to the
talkative Chinaman "soon every one buy
China lottery ticket. Much better'n
Louisiana lottery. What's matter China
lottery. If people want to gamble, let
them gamble!"
Playing Chinese lottery is very fas-
cinating way of gambling. The fact
that as small an amount of money as
ten cents can be invested with a possible
return of about $500 induces a good
many to purchase on the ground that
the losses are not great. Then to those
who like the excitement of gambling,
the drawings twice each day are prefer
able to those which come but once
month. The drawings generally occur
at 4 p. m. and II p. M, so that pur-
chasers may live continuously in the
hope of gaining large sum by the in
vestment OF a small amount. Unfortun-
ately, the gamblers are not limited to
the 10-cent expenditure A single ticket
in some of the companies can be made
to cost as high as twelve or more dollars,
and it don't take many of these to eatup
the wages of the workingman or the
clerk.
The tickets are innocent enough look
ing affairs. They are nothing but pieces
of manila paper 6 inches long by 5
inches wide, on which are printed eighty
Chinese characters. The translation of
these characters would not indicate that
the tickets were lottery tickets. In
case in San Francisco the translation
was made, and it was found that the
characters represented poetical ideas en-
tirely foreign to lotteries or gambling.
These characters were placed on the
ticket for the purpose of evading the law
so as to make a conviction on charge
of selling lottery tickets an imposs-
bility. 1t was held that if there was
nothing on the ticket to show that it
was lottery ticket, no conviction could
be obtained. A means was found for
proving that they were lottery tickets,
but the characters remained the same.
There are many ways of marking these
tickets, so many in fact that most OF the
principal agencies keep large books in
the Chinese language explaining them
and giving the price. The ordinary man
ner of marking ticket is what is called
the straight" The purchaser of the
ticket is allowed to mark ten of the
characters on the ticket for 10 cents, and
if five of them happen to be drawn he
wins 20 cents, six 50, seven $1S.75, eight
$92, nine $3.50, and if all of them draw,
the prize is in the neighborhood of 5000.
Ii twenty cents is paid for the same
ticket the winnings are twice as large,
and so on upward to the limit, which is
different with the different companies.
Some companies fix the limit at $4,000
for the highest prize, while others have
been known to pay $4,000. The
chances of winning the highest prizes
are about as small as they are in the