Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29
ASIA'S MONTE CARLO
Visit to Some of the Great Gambling
Hells of Macao.
FORTUNES ARE won AND LOST
Chinese Always Ready to Bet on
Any Sort of Game.
HOW FAN TAN Is PLAYED

(C0pyrghtel. 1900. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
MACAO. November y. 1900.
write this in the Monte Carlo of Asia,
in the great gambling he'll of Macao where
Tartan runs riot. Day and night, SUNDAYS
ana week days year i'll and year out, thase
gambling houses are open. This is the cen
ter of the lottery system of west Asia
The Manila Company has moved here, and
the fortunes which Welt to the Philippines
now come to Macao. The chief gambling is
in fan-tan. in which thousands of dollars
are lost and won every night by betting on
the number of copper cash under the bowls.
am sitting in Il gambling he'll l write
these notes. 1t is in the heart of this Por-
tug14ese capital. on the Rua de Jogo. the
street of the gamblers. 1t is midnight ana
the pavement is throngcd with hard-face.l
Chinese, running 10 ard fro. The air IS
full of laughing and joking and OF the
noises which the Chinese call singing.
There are male and female registers. The
rest of the city is dark. but the Rua
de Joso bIazes with Chinese lanterns.
Its stores are open, and gambling signs
invite YOU 70 buck the Tiger" The talk
Is of winning and losing. There Is an
aimond~eyed. long-queued man who tells
how he won ten thousand dollars last week.
am how a Frenchmau came here to break
the bank and lost four thousand in one
night Listen, He says the man got 1t All
back the next night and fifteen thousand
dollars to boot. The thought stirS the
Yankee gambling blood in us, and We look
VI, the house where the money was won.
We go through well-lghted passage and
enter, The ground floor is full of Chinese,
That large room at the right Is crowded.
Yellow men and women are gathered about
q long table covered with mating, upon
which money and chips and Chinese cards
lying. Look up through that opening
which runs to the roof, with galleries at the
second and third floors See the hundreds
of anxious almond eyes which are looking
down upon the table. Notice their owners
as they let down little baskets with strings.
Each basket contains the money which its
owner wishes to stake. When the game is
over they pull up their winnings. AS the
baskets go down they sing out the number
where the money is to be placed and at the
close of each game the bankers shout the
numbers which win.
How Fan Tan is Played.
In another room they are playing fan-tan
in much the same way. Here the betting is
all on the number of copper coins under
bowl. The banker takes couple of hand
fuls of coins from q pile at one side Of the
table and covers them with a brass bowl.
Later on he will count them in fours, and
the betting is as to whether they will come
out even or whether one. two or three cash
will be left
The bets flow in from all parts Of the
room There are hundreds of dollars upon
the table. and the crouper calls Stop"
He raises the bowl and begins to pull out
the coins with two chopsticks. taking four
out at time. He does it so slowly that
there is no chance of deception.
The game looks fair, and | put my money
on No. l, only TO find that ) wins the stake
The next time l put it on 2, but luck is
against me and IT goes into the pile of the
banker Had l won, | should have gotten
three times my stake.
This game of fan-tan is played through
out the far east. There are different ways
Of counting, but, of course the chances are
always in the favor of the banker. In
some games the chances are almost even,
but the banker has commission of per
cent or all that passes over the table.
There Is game where the gambler has
one chance of winning, two of retaining his
stake and one of losing 1t. This is called
chtng-tow. If at the close of the count
one coin Is left he gets an amount equal to
his stake; if two three, he saves his