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times the amount of his stake, this leaving a fourth share to the owner of the bank, who sits at the end of a large table, and to prevent cheating, with a pointed stick counts out the uncertain pile of Cash. We have described this fully as it is not a common game practised in the Colony: the only fittings required are a few boards to form a table resting on trestles, and the tombs selected are as much as possible out of view, and generally of the least valuable class. Although games of chance are very generally indulged in amongst the Chinese at their own dwellings, there are not at this time more than seven or eight houses in which public gambling is carried on, the persons frequenting them are of the least reputable class and the stakes are but of small amount. Disturbances frequently arise out of gambling disputes: which lead to the interference of the Police, and on the slightest complaint prompt measures are taken to capture the persons assembled in the gaming house, who on repeated occasions have been heavily fined or imprisoned.
Public gambling is not now a dangerous element in the social system of the Colony, and can never, while illegal, rear its head to become so, as it is impossible to establish a public gambling house...