no violence and there were no victims, unless you count the crickets, which rushed at each other, mandibles agape, for a few seconds. But that did not stop the police raiding the barn on the outskirts of Shanghai, abruptly halting the cricket-fighting tournament, dispersing the spectators and arresting the organisers, all for the crime of gambling. Over the previous five nights, 1m yuan had changed hands.
Betting is an obvious target in the crackdown on corruption led by Xi Jinping, the country’s leader. State media have said primly that officials “must resolutely stop” playing mah jong. Long-mooted plans to allow horse-racing and lotteries in the island province of Hainan are languishing. Even state-sanctioned lotteries have landed in hot water. In 2015 an investigation in 18 provinces found that local administrators had siphoned 17bn yuan from them.
A Communist-Party-run lotto may sound drab. But last year the Sports and Welfare lotteries combined raked in 511bn yuan in ticket sales, nearly as much as America’s various state lotteries earned between them. Since Mr Xi took office in 2013, sales have almost doubled . By revenue, Chinese lotteries are on course to overtake America’s this year, to become the world’s biggest.