Pakapu/pakapoo ticket (白鴿票)
Date Published
: gambling, Leisure
: Sydney
: Sydney
: c.1900
Pakapu ticket
pakapu/pakapoo ticket / 白鴿票 - Cantonese = baahk gaap piu
Like a Pak-a-pu ticket" was a phrase once common in Australian English and implied that something was extremely messy or confused. In other words, pretty much like how the Chinese characters on a pakapu/pakapoo ticket (白鴿票) would have looked to most non-Chinese readers. Not that inability to read the characters was any bar to playing and certainly playing this form of lottery (which many say was the origin of Keno) was popular with Chinese and non-Chinese Australian’s alike in the 19th century. On “any Saturday evening” in Melbourne in 1876 for example it was estimated that some 300 citizens were engaged in trying their luck at shops referred to as “Baby’s”, “The Doctor’s” and “Fong Fat’s”.
The pakapu tickets were sold in the streets on a commission basis and the winning combination drawn regularly and paid out on the basis of the number of characters marked off that matched those drawn. Ten was the number to be marked out of a possible 80 and winnings were paid on 5 correct and more. The potential prize could be substantial for a 6d. ticket:
If the ticket-holder has not five winning marks out of his ten he wins nothing but if he has five he wins 1s, 2d. ; if six, 9s. ; if seven, £3 15s, ; if eight, £21 ; if nine, £45 ; if the whole ten of his marks correspond with the prize marks he receives £81.
For the rules of a lottery shop.
[1] See, The Sun, 7 October 1931, p.17 & Smith's Weekly, 12 Mar 1938, p.2.
[2] Australasian Sketcher, 15 April 1876, p.7.
[3] Weekly Times, Saturday 11 March 1871, p.10.
Two "banks" operating in Wagga, 1883
"The Chinese lottery, which goes on all the year round, is a great institution in Geraldton, and in the wet season seems to be the only thing which galvanises the inhabitants into active thought. Everyone, children and all, go in for tickets; and I must confess. I do not think it is altogether a good education for boys and girls."
Evening News, 1 June 1901, p.2.
When did Pakapu become unlawful?
"PAKAPU PROSECUTION. WAGGA, Thursday. The police made a raid on some Chinese shops last night, and succeeded in making two arrests. This morning, at the police court, two Chinese were remanded on a charge of selling a pakapu ticket, an unlawful game, to Constable George Davidson."
The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 1906, p.11.
Pakapu case Wagga
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105676084?searchTerm=ah%20sing
Chinese lotteries
