Bill  Lee's Personal Experiences: Exploring the Problems of 

Compulsive Gambling and Organized Gangs 



Translated article from Sing Tao Daily

5-12-99 



At a periodic meeting held yesterday by NICOS Chinese Health Coalition, 

Bill Lee, the author of "Chinese Playground: A Memoir" was invited as a guest speaker

to share his life story in addition to explore the issues of compulsive gambling and organized 

gang problems that had long plagued the Chinese Community. 



Being a part of the Chinatown gangs in his early life, Lee revealed in his book of 

leading an unhappy childhood past. He discussed how he came to join the gangs and 

the paths that he had to take to readjust himself to the changes of society. With the publication 

of his book, he hopes that it will serve the purpose of bringing greater awareness for Chinese 

parents when raising their children to respect and care more about them. So as to prevent 

them from repeating his footsteps. 



Lee said it was great that NICOS brought to notice of the harmful effects of compulsive 

gambling and organized gang issues to the Chinese Community as well as opting to find 

solutions to the problem. He said that as a child, he would often follow his father to the 

Mah Jong Parlor. And that's how he eventually picked up the bad habit of gambling. He claims 

that when an individual becomes obsessed with gambling, they eventually become very 

self-centered and irresponsible. 



He states that the problem of gambling in an extremely complex issue in society e

specially when compounded with the continual existence of organized gangs, loan sharks, drug 

dealing and so forth. In order to prevent proliferation of the problem, the community itself has 

to develop a close network whereby enough resources can be provided. 



Lee believes that family upbringing plays a huge role in why youths join gangs in the first 

place. He claims that the way that Chinese parents discipline their children are of either negligence 

or far too strict. They rarely provide them with the much needed respect and attention that they 

deserve. He says, if youths are able to obtain money, cell phones and other materialistic items as 

well as peer support from a "big brother", organized gangs can easily become their "new family". 

Eventually, these youths will assist in carrying out orders for them. And by then, it would be extremely 

difficult for parents to save their children from the edge of the underworld. 



Lee says he has received huge responses from the community since the first publication of 

his book and the second edition is now available. Even though a gang member had approached 

and warned him when his first publication was released, he did not refrain from writing because he 

knows his works has no intention to offend anyone or any organization. He states that this incident 

reflects the fact that gangs are real people who also lives in fear. They can even feel nervous simply 

over a memoir. 



Kent Woo, Executive Director from NICOS said yesterday that this is the third 

meeting they've had to explore problem-gambling and organized gang issues in the Chinese 

community and it was an honor to have Bill Lee share with us a personal experiences and views 

on the issues. He said the coalition has set up a gambling/counseling hotline three weeks ago: 

(415) 668-5955 in hope to help those families who are struggling with the problem. He said 

for the moment, the hotline has approximating 300 workers whom all had special training  and skills 

to deal effectively with gambling issues and managing financial risks.In addition, the workers 

there can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, and so forth. When necessary, 

a face-to-face counseling session can be provided to help families cope with such problems.