GAME OF CHANCE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20510, 1 April 1932, Page 5

GAME OF CHANCE.

SWEET-VENDING MACHINE. CHKISTCHURCH PROPRIETORS CONVICTED. ''l am strongly of the opinion tltut this machine is unlawful within t.jie meaning of the Gaming Act, there being no evidence to justify the claim that it is a gaino cf skill. Although tweets are obtained by every person who puts in a disc, the great inducement is the strong element of gambling contained in the occasional .receipt, additional to the sweets, ot" a*\ number of discs entitling the player to obtain other goods for nothing.'' Mr E. D. Mosley, 8.M., made the foregoing remarks yesterday, in convicting Trevor Charles Watsou and Knos Victor William Crouch, of ii-sing a billiard room at 11 North road, l'apnuui, as a common gaming-house. The case was brought by the police to test tlte legality of a mint-swti'.'t \ (.'tiding machine in which discs costing threepence each are inserted, the player sometimes receiving a number of disc-, additional to the sweets, which entitle him to further play on the machine or to obtain such commodities as cigarettes and tobacco. Counsel for the defendants said that the machine was in use in various parts of the world, and was allowed in England. The idea was to stimulate the s:'l(; of merchandise by the issue, on the machine, of profit-sharing coupons. The M.igistr.ite remarked that the players did not use the machine for the sake of obtaining the sweets; the chance of getting something for nothing was the inducement. There was :t pernicious clement about all such machines that encouraged gambling. There was no question but that premises on which the machine was used were :v »'onunon gaming-house within the meaning of the Statute. The defendants, however, were decent, honest men, who had had no idea -that the machine was illegal. They wore each fined 10s and costs.