Kōrero: Gambling

The game pakapoo (similar to Lotto) was a favourite form of gambling in the Chinese community. It was often accompanied by opium smoking. The police periodically raided houses where gambling took place, so residents had to act fast to hide evidence. During demolition of this Haining Street house in Wellington in 1960 workers came across a hole in one of the floorboards and numerous pakapoo tickets. The hole might have been used to store caches of opium.