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Story: Gold and gold mining

Pakapoo ticket

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Pakapoo ticket

Chinese gold miners liked to gamble. This ticket is from the Chinese game pakapoo.

Each pakapoo ticket contained rows of characters marked in green ink from the Chian Ji Mun (an ancient poem in which no two words are repeated). Similar to lottery tickets, they were bought from an agent and the green ink characters were marked with black ink (in this example 12 green ink characters have been chosen). The agent kept a copy. A master ticket, on which 20 green ink characters were marked, was drawn. The ticket that best matched the master ticket’s choices was the winner.

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Toitū Otago Settlers Museum

Permission of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Gold and gold mining – Māori and Chinese miners, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/8649/pakapoo-ticket (accessed 14 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 2 March 2009.