in the East than the Jalan Tiga, but I do
not recall having seen them. It, and the thoroughfares immediately
adjoining, in which are situated the opium dens and the houses of
prostitution, form a district which represents the very quintessence of
Oriental vice. Over virtually every door are signs in Chinese, Malay
and English announcing that games of chance are played within. Such
resorts are not camouflaged in Borneo. They are as open as a railway
station or a public library in the United States. From afternoon until
sunrise these resorts are crowded to the doors with half-naked,
perspiring humanity, brown skins and yellow being in about equal
proportions, for the Malay is as inveterate a gambler as the Chinese.
The downstairs rooms, which are frequented by the lower classes, are
thickly sprinkled with low tables covered with mats divided into four
sections, each of which bears a number. A dice under a square brass cup
is shaken on the table and the cup slowly raised. Those players who
have been lucky enough to place their bets on the square whose number
corresponds to the number uppermost on the dice have their money
doubled, the others see their earnings swept into the lap of the
croupier, a fat and greasy Chinaman, usually stripped to the waist. In
this system the chances against the player are enormous. The play is
very rapid, the dice being shaken, the cup raised, the winners paid
and the wagers of the losers raked in too quickly for the untrained eye
to follow. The players seldom quit as long as they have any money left
to wager, but as soon as one drops out there is another ready to take
his place. The upstairs rooms, which are usually handsomely decorated
and luxuriously furnished, are reserved for the wealthier patrons, it
being by no means uncommon for a player to lose several thousand
dollars in a single night. Here cards are generally used instead of
dice to separate the players from their money, fan-tan being the
favorite game. I was told that the monthly subsidy paid by the British
North Borneo Company to the Sultan of Sulu, who comes over from Jolo
with great regularity to collect it, never leaves the country, as he
invariably loses it over a Sandakan gaming-table. Gambling is a
government monopoly in Borneo, the company farming out the privilege
each year to the highest bidder. In 1919 the gambling rights for the
entire protectorate were sold for approximately $144,000.

Crossing the Jalan Tiga at righ