GAMING

GAMING. A contract between two or more persons by which they agree to play by certain rules at cards, dice, or other contrivance, and that one shall be the loser, and the other the winner. When considered in itself, and without regard to the end proposed by the player's, there is nothing in it contrary to natural equity, and the contract will be considered as a reciprocal gift, which the parties make of the thing played for, under certain. conditions.

2. There are some games which depend altogether upon skill, others, upon chance, and some others are of a mixed nature. Billiards is an example of the first; lottery of the second; and backgammon of the last.

3. In general, at common law all games are lawful, unless some fraud has been practiced, or such games are contrary to public policy. Each of the parties to the contract must, 1. Have a right to the money or thing played for. 2. He must have given his full and free consent, and not been entrapped by fraud. 3. There must be equality in the play. 4. The play must be conducted fairly. But even when all these rules have been observed, the courts will not countenance gaming by giving too easy a remedy for the recovery of money won at play. Bac. Ab. h. t. A.

4. But when fraud has been practiced, as in all other cases, the contract is void and in some cases, when the party has been guilty of cheating, by playing with false dice, cards and the like, he may be indicted at common law, and fined and imprisoned, according to the heinousness of the offence. 1 Russ. on Cr, 406.

5. Statutes have been passed in perhaps all the states forbidding gaining for money, at certain games, and prohibiting the recovery of money lost at such games. Vide Bac. Ab. h. t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; Poth. Traite du Jeu; Merlin, Repertoire, mot Jeu; Barbeyrac, Traite du Jeu, tome 1, p. 104, note 4; 1 P. A. Browne's Rep. 171: 1 Overt. R. 360; 3 Pick. 446; 7 Cowen, 496; 1 Bibb, 614; 1 Miss. 635; Mart. & Yerg. 262; 1 Bailey, 315; 6 Rand. 694; 8 Cowen, 139; 2 Blackf. 251; 3 Blackf. 294; and Stakeholder; Wagers.

GAMING HOUSES, crim. law. Houses kept for the purpose of pemitting persons to gamble for money or other valuable thing. They are nuisances in the eye of the law, being detrimental to the public, as they promote cheating and other corrupt practices. 1 Russ. on Cr. 299; Roscoe's Cr. Ev. 663; Hawk. B. 1, ch. 75, s. 6; 3 Denio's R. 101; 8 Cowen, 139; This offence is punished in Pennsylvania, an perhaps in most of the states, by statutory provisions.