Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1904-04-12
GAMING TABLES OF MACAO.
Portuguese City Has a Rival to the
Casino at Monte Carlo.

Quaint and picturesque is the
old Portuguese city of Macao,
which, though a decaying and al
most mOribund settlement from
the commercial point of view, is,
says Mr.. Eutace Reynolds Ball,
the seat Of a highly lucrative
gambling industry, ovel score of
licensed gambling houses paying
a tax in the aggregate of some
$4,000 a year to the government.
Macao has been, and is still,
chiefly celebrated for its gaming
tables, which are crowded by Chi
nese and Portuguese, and from
Saturday to Monday by British
ers from Hong Kong, who prefer
having a flutter at the game, if it
can be so called, of fan tan, in
stead of going to the service at the
Hong Kong cathedral. The gam
bling bells are in the Chinese quar-.
ter, and are by no means attrac.
tive as regards exterior or interi-
or. They are, of course, licensed
by the Portuguese authorities
indeed, the taxes imposed on these
gambling dens constitute one of
the principal sources of revenue of
the city.
These gambling houses are usu-
ally of one story only, and on the
ground floor (which you enter at
once from the street, there being
no hall or anterOOm) you find an
ill-lighted and ill-ventilated room,
some 30 feet by 80 feet, the sole
furniture of which is a table about
6 feet square by 4 feet high. Be-
fore the crOupier, usually the pro-
prietOr, is a small pile of cash. in
the middle of the table is large
slab of zinc, divided into four see
tons, numbered l, >, 3, f. The pun
ters stake their stakes on one Of
the sections, but the richer play
ers are careful not to indicate the
amount of the stake, and wrap
their money up in rice paper,
though even the most skilled |
would find it difficult |
with so many eyes watching his
of the cash to add to |
bis legitimate profits by cheating. /
The ground floor room is crowd |
I'd with lower class natives and a
'prinkling of foreigners, but in
he balconies which surround the
hell are collected the
members of the Chinese "haute
mandarins and other
'unctiOnaries, who can join in the
yame unperceivd by the common
lerd below.
They pass their stakes to the
in small reed baskets,
which are lowered and raised by
ord. When all the stakes have
been laid down and the zine tablet
~ this time is quite concealed by
little heaps of coins and little pill
ike pellets which contain the
stakes of the more cautius gam
blers, suspicious of the deXterity
IF the croupicrS in manipulating
the cash-the croupier calls ont
he Chinese equivalent of Mes
sieurs, le jeu est fait.' He indi-
Gates this as well by covering his
own heap of cash with a brass
bowl and begins slowly and DELHI
nrately to draw out four cash at Il
time, with a chOpstick in each /
hand. His movements are pur-
pOsely deliberate, so as to impress |
the punters with the fact that |
there is no deception" Ultimate.
Iy the heap is reduced to one, two
Dr. three cash, or nothing remains.
The winning stakes are at once
paid in proportion of three times
the stakes 0ess the bankers COM
mission of 10 per cent? to those
who have backed the winning
numbers 1, >. 3 or 4, the latter
only winning when no
cash remains in the heap after di'
vision.