Card buff dealt $400 fine

AN 83-year-old card buff was fined $400 yesterday for gambling a few hundred dollars in Victoria Park.

Chow Fat was found playing sap sam cheung with three men during a police operation on Monday.

Chow, Chu Wong, 69, Lam Fook-cheung, 54, and Tam Wing-hang, 68, all pleaded guilty to one charge of gambling.

Chow, who had two previous convictions for gambling, had $170 in cash. The others had between $90 and $140 on them. Lam, a labourer, had six convictions for gambling.

Magistrate Yung Yiu-wing fined them $400 each.

Another group of three men was caught playing a traditional card game, sap ng wu, on Sunday during a police raid code-named 'Short and Sharp'.