64 THE GAME OF CHAP-JI-KI. 
life. In these sunny Settlements in the Straits of Malacca 
serious gambling seems to come and go by fits and starts—to 
break in waves from time to time over the surface of Chinese 
life, carrying trouble and distress with it amongst many peace- 
ful families. 
Singapore has been lately visited by one of these periodi- 
cal gambling epidemics. 
Since 1893 there has grown up amongst some of the China- 
born and amongst all the Straits-born Hokkien and Teo-Chin. 
well-to-do and middle class families in Singapore, a new form 
of gambling commonly called the Chap ji-ki lottery. In a word, 
this lottery is won by guessing rightly one out of twelve cards 
selected from a pack of ordinary Chinese playing cards. 
This new form of lottery has within the space of the last 
twelve months become immensely popular amongst Chinese 
ladies in Singapore, owing to the popularity of the game and 
the passion for gambling it excites; the losses that have been 
incurred have done great harm to and caused much distress and 
trouble amongst the families of the Chinese resident in Singapore. 
If steps had not been taken by Government to deal with 
the evil, this new Chinese lottery might have become as harm- 
ful to the private life of the Strait-born Chinese as the old Hoe- 
He or Wha-Way lotteries that flourished unchecked in the 
Straits Settlements some fifteen years ago. 
As there seems to be some confusion of ideas abroad as to 
how the game of Chap-ji-ki played, I propose to explain briefly 
the manner in which the game of Chap-ji-ki lottery is conducted. 
The game of Chap-ji-ki itself and the Chap-ji-ki lottery now 
carried on are different. The Cantonese and Hok-kien way of 
playing the ordinary Chap-ji-ki game varies a little but is roughly 
as follows. . 
The Chap-ji-ki game as played in China. 
On a board about six feet long by four feet broad, the names 
of six Chinese chessmen are carved (the same six figures are 
found on all common Chinese playing cards, just as the figures 
King, Queen, &c., on English playing cards are derived from the 
figures used in chess). 
