Gaming and Betting
| Date | 01 April 1950 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835001400211 |
| Published date | 01 April 1950 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Gaming and Betting
"WHEREAS
akind of gaming has of late sprung up
tending to
the
injury
and
demoralization of
improvident persons
by
the
opening of places called
Betting Houses or Offices,
and
the
receiving of money in
advance
by
the
owners or occupiers of such houses or
offices, or
by
the
persons acting on their behalf, on their
promises
to
pay
money on events of horse races
and
the
like contingencies".
Thus
spake Parliament in 1853 in
the
preamble
to
the
Betting Act of
that
year. This preamble was later re-
pealed,
but
the
repeal is
not
to
affect
the
binding force,
operation or construction of
the
Act which made
it
unlawful
for a house to be
kept
for
the
purpose of
the
owner or
occupier betting with other persons. By this Act betting-
houses are to be deemed common gaming houses.
In
1845 Parliament
had
passed
the
Gaming Act which
imposed apenalty on
the
owner or keeper of
any
common
gaming house,
and
after facilitating
the
difficult
matter
of
proof in such cases, made
it
lawful (by section 3) for a
Justice to give
authority
by
special
warrant
to
any
con-
stable to enter a place where unlawful gaming was suspected,
and
to
arrest persons found therein
and
bring
them
before a
Justice. All such persons should be dealt with according
to law as if
they
had
been arrested
by
the
Justice before
whom
they
should be so brought
and
it was directed
by
section 8
that
it
should be lawful for
the
Justice before
whom
any
person is
taken
by
virtue of
the
warrant
[i.e.
that
issued under section 3] to direct all tables
and
instruments
of gaming found on
the
premises to be forthwith destroyed.
These
statutes
of about one hundred years ago were
passed before
the
ingenuity of
man
had
devised
the
"fruit
machine" or
the
"football-pool",
and
before Parliament
had
decreed in 1928
that
nothing contained in
the
Betting
Act 1853 should apply
to
any
approved racecourse or
any
act
done thereon on
the
days on which horse races
but
no
other races
take
place thereon.
(It
is a totally irrelevant
199
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