This version of the badger game is ancient, and not just in China either. For one thing, the 19th century US version crops up in Herbert Asbury's Gangs of New York. But if there's always a new sucker coming along, why change?
The version I heard back in '99 had the wrinkle that if you didn't pay up, you were threatened with being deported with a sex offender stamp in your passport (so you couldnt get back) and that interpol would be tipped off. Also, check out the comments for additional learned discussion.
I think it's only in the past decade or so, owing more, I suspect, to the Central London property boom than any degree of enforcement by Westminster council, that the Soho clip joint has practically died out.
Posted by: Richard J | December 05, 2011 at 07:32 PM