66 THE GAME OF CHAP-JI-KI. 
Chap-ji-ki in the Straits. 
In Singapore up till 1894 it was also played in this way by 
both males and females. During the last eighteen months or so, 
however, the form of the game has been much altered by Chinese 
ladies, by whom the game is now almost exclusively played. 
It must be borne in mind that the principal changes introduced 
by Chinese ladies into this game, have been made solely with a 
view to prevent detection and render it difficult for the police 
to secure convictions in the Law Courts. The lottery is now 
managed chiefly by women. The chief changes introduced are 
as follows :— 
The Chap-ji-ki board is entirely dispensed with. Instead of 
the public being invited to go toa room where a board and other 
apparatus necessary for thegame is furnished, the manager 
(usually a woman) engaged a large number of collectors (phoe- 
kha) of stakes (toan) the collectors went round the country 
and town and touted in all the private family houses to which 
they could gain admittance, and induced women, children, and 
servants to stake on some particular card. Asiatic ladies of 
the upper classes have much spare time on their hands and they 
are always fascinated by the excitement of gambling, When this 
excitement degenerates into a vice, diamond jewelry and clothing 
are freely staked or pawned to get funds to stake with. Collec- 
tors fihd little difficulty in getting support from the public. The 
staking public runs no risk except that of losing their stakes if 
the police raids the lottery. As soon, therefore, as the new form 
of Chap-ji-ki lottery caught on in Singapore, the managers of 
the chief Kongsi made piles of money whilst the gambling 
fever lasted. 
The collectors or agents receive the money staked from 
private houses or from friends of theirs whom they allow to do a 
kind of sub-commission work for them, and wrap it up in pac- 
kets (hong ). On these packets they place symbolic marks 
to represent the value of the stakes. I give an illustration of 
the commonest form used:— 
Thus the value of a dollar is represented by a cross inside 
a circle ; tendollars by a circle with a transverse bar; one cent 
by —; ten cents by Q. 
