Every Monday and Wednesday, the days before Hong Kong Lottery draws its winning numbers, hundreds of people gather around small temples around the island seeking inspiration, exchanging ideas or simply selling information on "winning" numbers. It is a night market for gamblers. Generally speaking, the temples favored for such activities are those dedicated to the spirits of the dead.
Wanshantung (萬善同) in Sanchung, Taipei County, is just such a temple.
It is no more than a small tile-roofed house that might normally accommodate around a dozen people. But on these "big days" before the Hong Kong lottery is drawn, two to three hundred people might gather here.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Now that Taiwan has started its own massively popular government-sponsored lottery (with results appearing on Tuesdays and Fridays), Thursday has also become a "big day" at Wanshantung. But despite the scale of the activity, the people taking part are still rather secretive.
"Don't come and don't ask," said Chen, who declined to reveal his full name, when we went to the cover the story.
"You media all come here and ruin our luck and our livings," he said, referring to the fact that extensive media interest in the temple and its activities had aroused the attention of police. And as the police patrol more frequently, the number of people who patronize the temples has fallen, cutting into business for everyone.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We used to have food vendors selling noodles, drinks and groceries around here," Chen said. "Now they have no business."
One hundred and forty years ago, Wan-shan-tung was a small shrine set up beside the spot where dozens of anonymous bodies were collected and buried together.
As this kind of shrine is not dedicated to any of the established Buddhist or Taoist deities but to the spirits of the dead, it is referred to as yin miao (陰廟), meaning a temple for the spirits of the dead. These spirits are regarded as having secret knowledge, such as information regarding winning lottery numbers. It is this sort of temple of the dead that lottery fanatics such as Chen hang out in.
"Ten years ago, when the underground lottery was all the rage in Taiwan, someone who won a big prize claimed they had received inspiration here. From that time on this temple began to be very popular. Sometimes there can be up to 700 people," Chen said.
How do men like Chen find inspiration? Watching how the ash falls from burning incense sticks is a popular method to discover the "winning numbers."
One man surnamed Yang, a frequent visitor to the Lord Yellow Stone Temple (黃石公廟) in Neihu, Taipei City, explained how a bowl of rice flour is placed next to a brazier with burning joss sticks. As the sticks burn down, the ash falls onto the flour to create patterns.
"See, here it's three, and the other one looks like seven. So this could mean 37, 03, 07, or altogether," said Yang. "If you have affinity with the gods, you'll be inspired and will be able to see the numbers."
In the Lord Yellow Stone Temple people worship a giant stone with supernatural power. According to folklore, the stone pushed up out of the ground, raising the house built above it by three meters. It's the magic power of the stone that draws people here.
As Yang spoke, a man with a pile of Taiwan Lottery tickets stood nearby holding lottery tickets like a bunch of joss sticks, bowing and worship the stone, hoping for lucky numbers.
"Here we mostly play the underground Hong Kong lottery. The Taiwan lottery is very hard to win," said Yang. Taiwan's underground lottery is based the Hong Kong lottery, in which numbers are drawn twice a week. Gamblers can pick between two and six numbers to win; the more numbers, the higher the risk, but also the bigger the prize.
Seeking divine inspiration is not the only reason for coming here. Temples of the dead also serve as a market for selling lucky numbers -- numbers worked out by calculation rather than revelation. There are a number of stalls selling B4-sized sheets with calculation formulas that analyze winning patterns from week to week. For those who cannot be bothered with all the calculations, you can pick up a set of "winning" numbers for between NT$100 and NT$300.
"I have told you many times, and I'll show you again: This set of numbers won two weeks ago and, according to the patterns here, it'll win again this Tuesday. Also, if you buy into the Taiwan Lottery using these numbers, you'll also win," said a man chewing betel-nut peddling his wares.
As he talks, he slaps the table with a wooden stick and red betel-nut juice sprays from his mouth. On "big days," he says, there can be 10 stalls selling lucky numbers here, all crammed into a 15㎡ area.
There are other stalls selling grilled corncobs, fish ball soup and herbal throat candies. At the edge of the crowd, there are a couple of people playing mahjong.
When two policemen later arrive on motorcycles, the crowd spreads out and becomes quiet, staring at the policemen or trying to walk about as though they are merely passing-by.
"It's not easy to press charges," said one policeman as he questions a vendor about selling lucky numbers. "First, it's hard to obtain sufficient evidence to charge them with gambling. And then, gambling only has a fine of a few thousand NT dollars, which does little to curb it," he said.
Heading back to his motorcycle, the policeman strikes at the heart of the matter. "The government itself is now taking the lead and being the banker of its own gambling system. What's legal and what's not has become even more blurred."
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