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Gambling and Gaming More then just a way to waste money, gambling was a leisure activity and a way to pass the cold winters at Barkerville. With most of the gold extraction being restricted to the summer months, the winter would leave plenty of time for games of chance to help break up the boredom. Large sums of money could change hands as the result of a few rounds of your favorite game of chance. To a Chinese miner trying to take his mind off the large debt he already owed the company, gambling offered a way to keep him entertained, while offering him a chance to make out better then what he started with. Gambling was also more then a way to keep busy, it was a social activity as well. Most miners were bachelors, come to Canada to make their fortune before either returning to China, or sponsoring the immigration of family members. With few people to talk to back at the claim, the temptation to go down to the Chi Kung Tong and socialize while gambling would be great. Associations like the Chi Kung Tong sponsored gambling as a way to make money. Gambling houses raked off money to sponsor activities and the social welfare systems they offered. Games, while not rigged, would have provided an element of risk. Money would be gathered from those that lost, as well as those that won. The house rake off in many of these establishments was 7-10%, meaning that even the big winner would be expect to see all of his pot reach him. So no matter what, the house made out better then anyone else.2 There are many different games played. Mahjongg, policy(lottery), dominoes, fan tan, and were all played, as well as many others. The site of the Chi Kung Tong building has evidence of at least two of these games, dominoes and fan tan. One of the most popular games was fan tan. The names comes from the Chinese terms 'Fan', meaning to turn over a cup, and 'Tan', to spread out. In this case that spreading out involved a pile of counters. These counters, either buttons, beads, or coins, were randomly grabbed from a pile and thrown into a brass cup without being counted.2 Played on a square board, each of side of the board was assigned a number. The side closest to the dealer would have the number 1. The number 2 would be to the right of the dealer, opposite him would be three, and to his left would be four. Money would be placed by the bettors on one of these numbers, or on the corner between two numbers. If money was placed on a corner, it was bet on either of the two numbers to win. When all players had placed their bets, the dealer would Fan Tan, or turn over the brass cup and spread out the counters into groups of four. The number of counters left over after the dealer had counted out all groups of four would be the number that won. The game paid out 3-1 on bets on the side of the board, and 1-1 on bets on the corners.2 |