Pakapoo (; sometimes spelt pak-ah-pu) is a Chinese lottery game popular in

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

in the 19th century, including on the

Victorian Goldfields The Goldfields region of Victoria is a region commonly used but typically defined in both historical geography and tourism geography (in particular heritage tourism). The region is also known as the Victorian Golden Triangle. Description ...

. A pakapoo ticket is bought which contains rows of characters from the ''

Thousand Character Classic The ''Thousand Character Classic'' (), also known as the ''Thousand Character Text'', is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand ...

'', an ancient poem in which no two words are repeated. The master ticket is kept hidden and is marked by the organiser of the game. The player marks a number of characters on their ticket. The ticket closest to the master ticket wins. A 1921

The Argus (Melbourne) ''The Argus'' was an Australian daily morning newspaper in Melbourne from 2 June 1846 to 19 January 1957, and was considered to be the general Australian newspaper of record for this period. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most ...

article, described the game in detail:

"Pukka-poo" is a gambling game imported from San Francisco, and is based upon an attempt to select 10 winning numbers out of 100 possibles. If the selector gets five right, the player gets his or her shilling back; if six are right, the winnings are £7; if 10, £42. Otherwise the Chinese wins! The draws are called "races," and take place every hour. In some of the places devoted to "pukka-poo," dice, crown and anchor, and other gambling games are played. The police do their best to break up these haunts of vice, but little can be done unless there is actual disorder. As a rule, when a customer has lost his money the Chinese give him 4d. and suggests the loser should go for a drink. That 4d. has stopped many a disturbance.

In Australian slang, "It looks like a Pakapoo ticket" is a reference to any writing that is messy or scrawled.

References

Lotteries New Zealand culture Chinese-Australian history Chinese games {{Gambling-stub