Betting and Gaming Act 1960
| Year | 1960 |
Betting and Gaming Act, 1960, 1960
(8 & 9 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 60
An Act to amend the law with respect to betting and gaming and to make certain other amendments with a view to securing consistency and uniformity in, and facilitating the consolidation of, the said law and the law with respect to lotteries; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Betting
1 Replacement of Betting Act, 1853, etc., by new provision.
(1) The Betting Acts, 1853 and 1874, and, so far as it relates to betting, section four hundred and seven of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, shall cease to have effect, and the following provisions of this section shall have effect in place thereof.
(2) Save as permitted by virtue of subsection (5) of this section or subsection (1) of section four of this Act, no person shall use, or cause or knowingly permit any other person to use, any premises for the purpose of the effecting by that person or, as the case may be, by that other person of betting transactions with persons resorting to those premises; and any person who contravenes the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of an offence:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply where both the person so using the premises and all the persons with whom the betting transactions are effected—
(a ) either reside or work on those premises or on premises of which those premises form part; or
(b ) are, or are acting on behalf of, holders of bookmaker's permits which are for the time being in force,
and, without prejudice to section three of the Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934, shall also not apply in relation to pool betting transactions.
(3) Any person who, for any purpose connected with the effecting of a betting transaction, resorts to any premises which are being used in contravention of the last foregoing subsection or of subsection (2) of section three of the Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934 (which restricts the premises which may be used as a place where persons resorting thereto may effect pool betting transactions) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.
(4) For the purposes of the last foregoing subsection proof that any person was on any premises while they were being used as mentioned in that subsection shall be evidence that he resorted to the premises for such a purpose as is so mentioned unless he proves that he was on the premises for bona fide purposes which were not connected with the effecting of a betting transaction.
(5) In subsection (1) of section one of the Racecourse Betting Act, 1928, and in section twelve of the Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934 (which provide for certain exemptions from the Betting Act, 1853, in the case of approved horse racecourses and licensed tracks), for any reference to the said Act of 1853 there shall be substituted a reference to subsection (2) of this section; and in the said section twelve for the words ‘anything done on any licensed track by a bookmaker’ there shall be substituted the words ‘anything done on any track which is not an approved horse racecourse’.
(6) Subsection (4) of this section shall not apply to Scotland, but, in any proceedings in Scotland under subsection (3) of this section, if any person is proved to have been on any premises while they were being used as mentioned in the said subsection (3), that person shall be held to have resorted to the premises for such a purpose as is so mentioned unless he proves that he was on the premises for bona fide purposes which were not connected with the effecting of a betting transaction.
2 Bookmaker's permits.
(1) No person shall act as a bookmaker on his own account unless he is the holder of a permit authorising him so to act (in this Act referred to as a ‘bookmaker's permit’) which is for the time being in force; and if any person acts as a bookmaker in contravention of this subsection he shall be guilty of an offence:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply to the receiving or negotiating by a person registered under the Pool Betting Act, 1954, of bets made by way of pool betting.
(2) The First Schedule to this Act shall have effect for the purposes of bookmaker's permits.
3 Authorisation and registration of agents by bookmakers and Board.
(1) No person shall by way of business receive or negotiate bets as servant or agent to another bookmaker or to the Board unless—
(a ) he has attained the age of twenty-one years; and
(b ) he is authorised in that behalf in writing in the prescribed form by that other bookmaker or, as the case may be, by the Board; and
(c ) in the case of a person acting as servant or agent to another bookmaker, that other bookmaker is the holder of a bookmaker's permit or betting agency permit:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply to any person who is the holder of such a permit as aforesaid, or who receives or negotiates bets as aforesaid on premises occupied by the holder of such a permit or by the Board.
(2) If any bet is received or negotiated by any person as servant or agent to another bookmaker or to the Board in contravention of the foregoing subsection, both that person and that other bookmaker or, as the case may be, the Board shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) The Board and every bookmaker who is the holder of a bookmaker's permit or betting agency permit shall keep a register in the prescribed form showing every person who is for the time being authorised for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section by the Board or, as the case may be, by that bookmaker, and shall not grant any such authorisation without making the appropriate entry in that register; and if any person contravenes any of the requirements of this subsection he shall, in respect of each contravention, be guilty of an offence.
(4) If any person who holds any authority in writing issued for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section or who is required by subsection (3) of this section to keep a register, on being required by a constable to produce that authority or, as the case may be, register for examination, refuses or without reasonable cause fails so to do, he shall be guilty of an offence.
(5) Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds or, in the case of offences under subsection (2) or subsection (3) of this section, on a second or any subsequent conviction under the same subsection, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.
(6) Nothing in this section shall apply to the receiving or negotiating by any person as servant or agent to a person registered under the Pool Betting Act, 1954, of bets made by way of pool betting.
4 Betting office licences and betting agency permits.
(1) Where in the case of any premises there is for the time being in force a licence authorising the holder of the licence to use those premises as a betting office (in this Act referred to as a ‘betting office licence’), then—
(a ) subsection (2) of section one of this Act shall not apply to the use of those premises for the effecting of any betting transaction with or through the holder of the licence or any servant or agent of his; and
(b ) subsection (2) of section three of the Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934, shall not apply to the use of those premises for the effecting of any such betting transaction by way of sponsored pool betting.
(2) The following persons, and the following persons only, may apply for the grant or renewal of a betting office licence in respect of any premises, that is to say—
(a ) a person who is for the time being the holder of, or an applicant for, a bookmaker's permit;
(b ) the Board;
(c ) a person who, not being the holder of, or an applicant for, a bookmaker's permit, is for the time being both—
(i) accredited by a bookmaker who is the holder of a bookmaker's permit or by the Board as an agent for the purpose of receiving or negotiating bets by way of business with a view to those bets being made with that bookmaker or, as the case may be, with or through the Board; and
(ii) the holder of, or an applicant for, a permit (in this Act referred to as ‘a betting agency permit’) authorising him to hold a betting office licence.
(3) An application for the grant of a betting office licence in respect of any premises may be made notwithstanding that the premises have still to be constructed or are still in the course of construction.
(4) Subject to the two last foregoing subsections, the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect for the purposes of betting office licences and betting agency permits.
5 Conduct of licensed betting offices.
(1) A licensed betting office shall be managed in accordance with the rules set out in the Second Schedule to this Act, and in the case of any contravention of any of those rules the licensee and any servant or agent of the licensee by whom the contravention was committed shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds:
Provided that, where any person is charged with an offence under this subsection by reason only of his being the licensee, it shall be a defence to prove that the contravention took place without his consent or connivance and that he exercised all due diligence to prevent it.
(2) Without prejudice to any other right to refuse a person admission to premises or to expel a person from...
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