The "Liwo Wei" lottery, is owned and operated by a syndicate headed by Kao Lee-sung, noted underworld character, who has other gambling interests also and who, it will be recalled was shot and seriously wounded as he was leaving a sing-song girl hose on Swatow Road on the evening of June 16. He is better known as "Mobee Akung" and his life has been threatened repeatedly during the past few years in connection with rivalries in the gambling and opium trade. The "Liwo Wei" lottery caters mostly to the coolie element with minimum stake being one copper or one-third of a cent, whilst the prize is equivalent to 29 times the money staked.
Some 200 branch-offices are being operated in various parts of the western district, beyond the jurisdiction of the Shanghai Municipal Police. Here too, armed guards are employed to protect the money, whilst auxiliaries perform the double function of sales-agents and "lookout" men. At the headquarters of this organization, 80 armed guards are employed whilst one is attached to each branch throughout the day and subsequently escorts the clerk who takes the day's takings to headquarters situated off Robison Road.
It must be pointed out, that the establishments cited here, including the gambling dens and the "Liwo Wei"
have all been licensed by the authorities and are understood to be the largest source of revenue to that administration.
It may therefore be said without fear of contradiction, that the total number of gangsters, directly making their living out of vice in the Japanese-controlled areas of Shanghai—excluding Pootung where in recent months the gambling and opium trade has been widely introduced—is in the vicinity of 3,000, one-third being armed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.