POLICE INVESTIGATING REPORTS OF ASIAN EXTORTION RACKET.(Local)

Byline: Joe Mahoney Staff writer

"Lucky Money."

It sounds like the title of a dime store paperback. But to the ears of Chinese restaurant operators in the Capital District, those four syllables could mean unfortunate trouble in the form of extorted payoffs for protection rackets.

Last week, two Asian men in their 20s, clad in black jackets and black pants, strolled into the Lee Fong restaurant on Central Avenue in Albany and demanded $104, purportedly for a contribution to a State University at Albany student organization, police said. "My friend has a gun, so give up the lucky money," one of the men snarled before snatching $40 away from the …