Arizona republican., 1898-07-18
THE CHINA LOTTERY.
What Wing Hee Did to the Unnatural
 ized Game

The Americanized Chinese policy
 had it's origin in Phoenix and is in all
 respects the same as the complicated
 Chinese game except that figures have
 been substituted for Chinese letters.
 The lottery has nearly driven the old 1 fashioned policy game out of the ter
 ritory. One day Joe Holland Charles Hayden and another sport were broke. The idea of Americanizing the game suggested itself to Holland and it was | done. It is an enterprise requiring capital to begin with of not less than $l,5OO, with a reserve fund to make hits" good. In order to get backing
 the sports spent several days figuring l cut chances attending every possible bet that might be made on the game.
 It is doubtful if anybody but China
 man understands all the betting combi-
 nations. It was discovered, though, that there were forty chances to one
 against making the lowest hit that pays anything. The chances against
 catching seven spot were found to
 be appalling and the probabilities against hitting the game with a nine
 or ten spot were almost infinite.
 The proprietors of the game found
 packers On this showing and the lot tery fourished for time But sin
 gular as it may seem it is not re-
 munerative. It has been hit for sev- ems, eights and hines with so great frequency that it has been discontin- ! ued. The best advertise ements of the lottery are its losses. Without them the game would languish and die and Tyn hn
 monument bearing the epitaph, Here lies a sure thing"
 But Phoenix does not contribute l enough players to enable a game to af-
 ford such expensive advertising. It
 is on record that a single ticket has
 drawn more than the receipts of the game for week, and during that
 week there was run of hits ranging from s200 to $500.
 Owing to a. weakness of human na- ture the lottery may be profitably conducted in connection with variety of other games. The loser of two bits
 will seek to recoup himself at some thing else, SO that the Americanized Chinese policy becomes a feeder, or chute through which victims are driven to craps, faro or roulette. One
 night last winter man lest $1 on a lottery ticket. He went to a faro l table to get it back and lost $6O He tried his luck at roulette and left that
 table $1S0 loser.
 An Americanized game in Phoenix had a singular experience When
 Chinatown was on North Second street
 it was run at great profit for nearly two years. In that time nobody had hit it for more than a six spot Some 1 time after the Chinese quarter was re- | moved the game was re-established. 1 In less than a month it had been caught for seven and the prcprietors were jumping sideways to keep it
 running. Wing Hee, wno had been an ] honest dish washer in a Washing. on l street restaurant, turned speculator ! because he made winning at faro one | night. He quit dish washing and in- | fested the faro table until he had lost 1 all his winning and all his savings in
 the capacity of laundryman of queens
 ware and cutlery. At the door of the 1 saloon in which his downfall had oc ] cured he borrowed a dollar of an ac- 1 quaintance to take one more whirl at faro. He had sudden 'hunch" and said, "No, I'll buy a China lottery
 ticket" His ticket won $200. The
 game was unable to reopen for the
 next afternoon drawing, but the pro
 prietors were digging for another bank
 roll. They got it and reopened at g o'clock the next night. A day or two 1 later Wing Hee made another winning
 of $150. This sidetracked the game for
 couple of drawings, but the pro-
 prietors managed to get $1,2QQ to. geIner and reopened with confidence
 The next night Wing Hee had a dream and the next day he played it.
 He caught the Un-Americanized lottery 1 for $500. Perceiving the folly of con- ducting an enterprise for the sole and
 exclusive benefit of Wing Hee, the
 proprietors closed the game perma- nently.