Gambling Raid in Chinatown Reveals a Difference in Cultures Michael Appleton for The New York Times A social club at 35-37 East Broadway in Chinatown. The police raided the building in May and made arrests on charges of gambling and illegal medical practices. Dozens of federal and local law enforcement officers recently descended on a six-story commercial building in Chinatown, wielding weapons and search warrants. They arrested seven people in what they called a crackdown on a hive of criminality. A top immigration official declared that the building, at 35-37 East Broadway, was linked to a Chinese criminal gang and harbored one of the largest illegal gambling operations uncovered in New York City's recent history. The Manhattan district attorney said two earlier raids there had found similar wrongdoing. The United States attorney in Manhattan sued for forfeiture of the building. But since the raid, on May 21, interviews throughout the building, including with several of those arrested, have offered an alternate view of the activity inside. Workers and customers described 35-37 East Broadway not as an underground casino but as a home for run-of-the-mill businesses and social clubs catering to immigrant laborers and retirees from Fujian Province in China. The gambling, they said, was friendly, low-stakes games of mah-jongg and cards. Their assertions seemed to be bolstered by the relatively minor gambling cases stemming from the raid. The defendants - all middle-age or older immigrants - face only misdemeanor charges. They include a 78-year-old woman who manages a Fujianese women's association on the third floor. The conflicting portraits of 35-37 East Broadway suggest how the norms of life in immigrant enclaves can sometimes clash with those of broader society. In Chinese culture, casual gambling is common and widely accepted, and the immigrants of Chinatown generally see nothing untoward in gathering in social clubs for games of chance. "It was just something they were doing to pass the time," the building's leaseholder, Ni Jixiong, said. In fact, even after the raid, the gambling did not stop. On recent visits to the building, people were playing mah-jongg and other games, sometimes for money. In addition to the hometown associations, where people whiled away hours between long shifts in restaurants and factories, the tenants included a Chinese bakery and shops that sold bus tickets to out-of-town casinos. It had a Western Union concession for sending money to China; immigration lawyers and accountants; and a Chinese matchmaker. Workers and customers in the building, many of them Fujianese immigrants, said they feared that the raid would lead to the closing of an important resource for their community. "We didn't understand what was happening," said Zheng Jian, 59, manager of the Ting Jiang Kuanban Association on the sixth floor. It was like we were terrorists, just like in one of those movies. Mr. Zheng said that when officers arrived, about a half-dozen people were in the association's small office playing mah-jongg. A religious altar decorated with incense, flowers and fresh fruit sits in one corner of the office. Chinese and United States flags hang on the wall. Mr. Zheng was the only person in the office arrested, probably, he said, because he had keys to the room. He was charged with two misdemeanors: promoting gambling in the second degree and possession of gambling records in the second degree. The police confiscated about $1,290 from a safe and hundreds of dollars from people in the room, including $427 from Mr. Zheng. According to a receipt they left, the police confiscated two electronic mah-jongg tables, posters, playing cards and poker chips. "Usually, we just sit around and watch television," Mr. Zheng said. Still, the authorities said the facts did not support claims that the gambling was merely friendly wagering. Nearly half the building was being used for illegal gambling, they said, and tens of thousands of dollars were trading hands day and night. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the federal Homeland Security Department, said in a statement that the building "has been modified to accommodate these gambling operations, including the creation of a ground-floor slots room hosting computers dedicated to slot machine games and the installation of surveillance cameras throughout areas of the building dedicated to gambling." The building's management said the ground-floor business was a so-called sweepstakes cafe, housing computer games that look like gambling but are designed in a way to skirt state laws. They have become popular around the country.