Wei Sing Lottery

Na obra "A Glossary of Reference on Subjects Connected with the Far East" de Herbert Allen Giles publicado em 1886 (segunda edição) temos esta referência sobre a lotaria Wei Sing (em Macau passou a ser conhecida por Vae Seng).

"Wai-Sing or Wei-Sing Lottery: examination names. A kind of sweepstakes once a very popular form of gambling among the Cantonese on the result of the public examination for the second degree; the holder of a successful candidate's name being the winner of a greater or less sum according to position on the published list. Being now strictly prohibited in Canton the lottery is still organised in Macao whence tickets are smuggled in large numbers to brokers in the former city for distribution. Winning tickets are not paid unless their price has previously reached Macao."

Depois de muitos anos em Guangdong, a lotaria foi declarada ilegal por Pequim em 1874 e foi 'transferida' para Macau e até para as ilhas.

Em 1881 as notícias dão conta de dois leilões:

"11th June, 1881 - Sale of the Wei Sing Lottery monopoly at Macao for three years for the sum of 1,015,000 an increase of 614,000 on the previous term.

16th July, 1881 - Second auction of the Wei Sing Farm at Macao only 640,000 realised."

Henry Norman escreve em 1895 no livro The Peoples and Politics of the Far East:

"Another illegitimate source of income was lost to Macao in 1885. The most intense interest is taken in China an comparable only to that of the great sporting events of the with us in tho official literary and military examinations. Peking and upon the results of these every other man in desires to have a wager. A lottery to this end called Wei sing Lottery has existed for a long time. The Government have made more or less sincere efforts to put down indeed in 1874 the Emperor went so far as to the Governor General Ying Han for sanctioning its establishment in Canton. The authorities of Macao of course saw possibilities of an enormous profit herein. They therefore ned out the lottery to a Chinaman who smnggled the tickets from Portuguese into Chinese territory and who paid them 859,000 dollars a year for the privilege. against this the Chinese were powerless so in 1885 in self defence they consented to the Wei Sing in China with the result that the sum the monopolist was able to pay the government of Macao fell instantly to 86,000 dollars."

Na verdade foi antes de 1885 que a lotaria Vae Seng se transferiu para Macau. O jornal The Peking Gazette publica numa edição do final de Julho de 1881:

"A decree. Chang Shu shồng and the Governor of Kuangtung report the capture of and sentence passed upon certain individuals who have established agencies for the sale of Wei Sing lottery tickets and pray that the penalty for this offence may be increased. The Board of Punishments will take this matter into consideration. The practice of gambling by means of the Wei Sing lottery is one of the great moral evils of Kuangtung and repeated decrees have been issued ordering the strict prohibition of the practice. These prohibitions appear however to be set at naught by lawless individuals who carry on this system of gambling under other names and are in collusion with the underlings of civil and military yamêns and the wealthy gentry who aid and abet them in their undertaking. It becomes necessary therefore again to enunciate the prohibitions against this vice and We hereby call upon the Governor General and Governor of the province in question to be continually on the watch for offenders in this particular and to punish them with a heavy hand."

Em Março desse mesmo ano o jornal escrevia: 

"The proprietors of the Wei Sing Lotteries too who are established at Macao are answerable for the expenditure of considerable sums in this manner for it is to their interest to secure the success of candidates with uncommon names that are not much patronised by the purchasers of Lottery tickets. Hence the necessity for a more careful watch over the officials and underlings on duty in the inner and outer enclosures."

O jornal The Japan Gazette também se ocupou do tema em 1881 tendo por base notícias publicadas nos jornais Hong Kong Daily Press e China Mail:

Curiosidade:

Em Macau existe a Travessa de Hó Lo Quai (a meio da Av. de Almeida Ribeiro)... Vejmaos um artigo do IACM sobre este comerciante chinês...

"Ho Lo Quai, também conhecido por Ho Kuai ou Ho Quai, natural do distrito de Shunde, na província de Guangdong, teve um papel importante na introdução da Lotaria Vae Seng em Macau. Entre 1863 e 1866, o governo provincial de Guangdong concedeu autorização a Guang Son Tong para operar a Lotaria Vae Seng, a fim de “poder fazer face às despesas de pagar aos soldados”. Ho Lo Quai, Chan Hang, Leong Luk, Fung Seng e Pan Yuk começaram a enriquecer em Guangdong, graças à Lotaria Vae Seng. Em 1868, Ho Lo Quai, Pan Yuk e os seus sócios trouxeram esta lotaria para Macau e fundaram a Companhia “Chi Chong Vo Vae Seng”, a primeira concessionária do jogo em Macau em regime de exclusivo.

Entre 1862 e 1874 Ho Lo Quai ganhou a concessão oficial do governo para operar o serviço de acostagem, com cobrança de taxas de atracação na zona litoral da Caldeira, no Porto Interior. Explorou as actividades de magarefe e durante muitos anos, foi também dirigente da Associação dos Magarefes de Macau. Dominou ainda a indústria do sal, pois era detentor dos direitos de vender sal refinado em toda a península de Macau e também nas ilhas de Taipa e Coloane."