YOUNG man, how about I lend you 20,000 yuan (US,410)?" a voice whisperedsintosmy ear. I looked around and found a middle-aged woman standing besides me. On hearing her words, I immediately realized she must have assumed I was a desperate gambler and she had decided to seduce mesintosa gambling debt.

　　It was an episode that happened while I was sitting outside the Hotel Lisboa in Macao, taking in some fresh air one night a few months ago.

　　Compared with the extravagance of casinos in Las Vegas, the Macao hotel casino, built in the intimidating shape of a bird cage, made even more of an impression due to the frenetic Chinese gamblers who swarmed around the gambling tables and placed bets from any position, regardless of whether they were seated or standing, in a way reminiscent of typical gambling scenes from Hong Kong films.

　　Last March, the former Portuguese colony ended the gambling monopoly held for decades by Stanley Ho and brought in competition from Las Vegas to revive its sluggish economy.

　　For US casino moguls Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, who won two of three casino licences offered by the Macao government last year, the confidence in Macao that led to their pledged investment of over US billion seems to lie in the mysterious belief that Chinese are the world's most passionate gamblers, a stereotype widespread outside the Chinese mainland.

　　Universal comfort

　　When our 17-membersgroupschecked in to the Hotel Lisboa, our passports were xeroxed as a precaution the government has adopted against gambling with public money.

　　According to rumour, the measure scared off many Chinese mainland high rollers, mainly government officials and senior business managers, who gamble overseas with public money that has been entrusted to them.

　　Considering the difficulties faced by the average Chinese in travelling abroad, in comparison to privileged and often corrupt groups, private business owners active in foreign trade are another major force of overseas Chinese mainland gamblers.

　　If staking public money with no hesitation well matches the weird image of Chinese high rollers, who do not bat an eyelid while dropping US million on a turn of the cards, the gambling drive of those private business owners shares a lot in common with that of early overseas Chinese immigrants whose descendants still live in Chinese communities abroad and are known for their traditional passion for gambling.

　　Isolated from the surrounding social environment, due to language and cultural barriers, as well as to racial discrimination, early Chinese immigrants who were bored by excessive labour found gambling an ideal recreation which provided not only the hope for a sudden windfall of much needed cash, but also sorely missed social cohesion, according to an online analysis entitled, "A Gambling Nation".

　　Nowadays, many Chinese private business owners find the money in their pockets is the only thing linking them to a foreign land that only matters to them as a place to make a fortune. They find casinos,swheresthey are treated as important and valued guests, help to relieve the risk and pressure they have to confront every day.

　　"For most American tourists, gambling is just a recreation and only occupies a minor part of their stay in Las Vegas," said Frank Dong, a local tour operator who arranges trips to Las Vegas for Chinese tour groups on business visits.

　　"But for many Chinese, especially those American-Chinese from US Chinatowns, gambling is almost the only reason they visit Las Vegas."

　　In the US, the incredibly cheap two-day trip price, covering one night's accommodation, offered by weekend shuttle buses busy between Chinatowns and gambling cities including Las Vegas and Atlantic City, is almost irresistible for many Chinese who are only asked to gamble for a certain number of hours.

　　Belief in luck

　　Many Chinese impressed by the booming gambling industry in Las Vegas and Macao would suggest, half in jest: why not build a gambling city in northwestern China to help boost the desperate economy?

　　Since gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland, the extent of the craze among its 1.3 billion people cannot be satisfactorily judged by media coverage of the underground gambling market, which is under constant police suppression, especially nowadays with Internet gambling growing fast.

　　"Entertainment gambling with traditional games like Mahjong, which only very rarely leads to trouble, is ever more common among family members and friends in Shanghai as the city witnesses increasing numbers of laidoff people these years," said a senior local police official. "The mushrooming of chess and card clubs in the city does have something to do with gambling, but large scale gambling crime normally occurs in the city outskirts."

　　In fact, gambling was severely prohibited by the government throughout much of China's history, even in the more loosely controlled late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Gambling was especially concentrated in the coastal regions, which also hosted the foreign concessions, including Canton, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao.

　　But the sweeping modern craze for stock market speculation and lottery tickets among Chinese still seems to strongly support the stereotype: "Basically all Chinese have the gambling gene."

　　The above mentioned online analysis provided a more probable explanation of this mysterious "blood heritage": Luck and the quest for good luck has long been a fundamental component of the national culture.

　　It is this strong belief in luck that leads many to gamble their meagre savings in the hope of becoming rich. So a love of gambling can be said to follow naturally from this belief in luck.

　　This theory at least helps explain the calm and accepting attitude many Chinese gamblers hold in the face of misfortune. One such individual, a Chinese-American gambler named Mark, was cited in a news report. Upon losing a huge sum he shrugged stoically and said he would just "chalk it up to bad luck."