Gaming Or Gambling - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition gaming-or-gambling

Definition :

Gaming or gambling, the playing any game of chance, as cards, dice, etc., for money, or money's worth.

The still unrepealed 33 Hen. 8, c. 9, prohibits the keeping of any common house for dice, cards, or any unlawful games, under penalties of 40s. for every day of so keeping the house, and 6s. 8d. for every time of playing therein; and the (English) Gaming Act, 1738 (12 Geo. 2, c. 28) (applied by the Gaming Act, 1739 (13 Geo. 2, c. 19), to all games with dice, except backgammon, and by the (English) Gaming Act, 1744 (18 Geo. 2, c. 34), to 'roulet, otherwise roly-poly'), declares hazard and other games to be lotteries, so that the keepers of tables for them are liable to penalties under the (English) Lotteries Act, 1721 (8 Geo. 1, c. 2), the (English)

Lotteries Act, 1710 (9 Anne, c. 6), and the Lotteries Act, 1698 (10 & 11 Wm. 3, c. 17); the system of

incorporation of previous statutes by reference

being carried very far in gaming legislation.

Gaming in Public-houses, etc.--Sect. 79 of the (English) Licensing (Consolidation) Act, 1910 (replacing s. 17 of the Licensing Act of 1872), penalizes up to 10l. for a first offence and up to 20l. for a subsequent one any licensed person who suffers gaming or any unlawful game on his premises or suffers them to be used for betting; but to play whist for prizes not contributed to by the players is not within this enactment, because for gaming there must be a chance of the players losing as well as of winning, Lockwood v. Cooper, (1903) 2 KB 418.

Gaming house, Any house, room, tent, enclosure, space vehicle, vessel or any place whatsoever in which gaming takes place or in which instruments of gaming are kept or used for gaming, Krishnachandra v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1965 SC 307: (1964) 1 SCR 765.

Gaming-houses.--The Gaming Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 109), repeals so much of 33 Hen. 8, c. 9, as prohibits bowling, tennis, and other games of mere skill. It also provides that the owner or keeper of any common gaming-house, and every person having the care or management thereof, and also every banker, croupier, and other person in any manner conducting the business of any common gaming-house, shall, on conviction, be liable, in addition to the penalties of the Act of Hen. 8, to pay such penalty (not more than 100l.) as shall be adjudged by the justices, or may be imprisoned with or without hard labour for not more than six calendar months; but adds that nothing shall prevent any proceeding by indictment, see Daniels v. Pinks, (1931) 1 KB 374, following Jenks v. Turpin, (1884) 13 QBD 505.

Justices of the peace, at the general annual licensing meeting, may grant annual billiard licences to such persons as they deem fit to keep billiard tables and bagatelle boards, or the like. Penalties are imposed for keeping such tables without a licence, or allowing play between one and eight o'clock a.m., or on Sunday, Christmas-day, or Good Friday, or on any day of public fast or thanks-giving.

Winning money by 'ill practice' in play is made punishable in the same way as obtaining money under false pretences; and by s. 18 wagers are declared to be irrecoverable at law, and wagering contracts void. As to the liability of a bankrupt for gambling or rash and hazardous speculation, see (English) Bankruptcy Act, 1914, s. 157. And as to gambling on loss by maritime perils, see (English) Marine Insurance (Gambling Policies) Act, 1909. See the (English) Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934 (24 & 25 Geo. 5, c. 58), and see Elderton v. United Kingdom Totalisator Co., (1935) 1 Ch 373 (as to advertisement of football pool on credit); WAGER; BETTING; and LOTTERY; and see Chitty's Statutes, tit.'Game and Gaming.' Consult Coldridge and Hawksford, Law of Gambling.