246 HUA-HOEY LOTTERY. 
It is no exaggcration to say that Hua-Hoey gambling corrupts 
and brings to ruin thousands of people—men, women and 
children but how to check it and minimise the evil is a very 
difficult question. 
The common gaming houses in town are well known 
to the Police They are defended by strong iren barred 
doors, have ladders, trap-doors and escapes and are always 
ready for a raid by the Police Premises have to be hired and 
fitted up for the purpose, and there is a certain amount of risk 
in the undertaking, but a Sue floey lottery can be Sree any- 
where, in a shop, a privat e house ora Kampong. ‘he result 
is not often declared at the same place and without a warrant 
the Police cannot entcr a ae All kinds of artifices are 
practised when the winning number is exluibited in order to 
escape detection by t the Police. Sometimes the character . 
ev 
marked en a piece of yam or sweet potato and swallowed if th 
Police appear: cr itis written on the palm of the hand or on 
the sand and quickly rubbed out. Instead of the well known 
Hua-Hoey characters the numbers corresponding with them 
on the lottery y papers are now frequently used and it is extremely 
difficult for the Police to procure sati isfactory evidence against 
the principals envaged in the business. 
‘The agents with vlbet: lottery papers, pencil and stakes col- 
lected are sometimes arrested and fined, bat it has been held by 
a learned Judge that the possession of these “ tickets, ””.as they 
are called, is no offence. In Burma it was held by one high 
judicial functionary that the thirty-six animals game was not 
gambling within the meaning of the Act in force ther 
The more respectable Chinese are fully alive to the wide- 
spread mischief caused b by these Hna-Hoey lotteries and a 
memorial nce asan Appendix to this paper, has been recent- 
ly addressed to the Legish. itive Council by certain Chinese inha- 
bitants of Penang praying that most stringent measures should 
be adopted for their suppression. 
C, W. SNEYD KYN NER SES 
