CHANCE, NOT SKILL

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 258, 30 July 1927, Page 7

CHANCE, NOT SKILL

EUCHRE TOURNAMENTS PROMOTERS TO BE CONVICTED Dominion Special Service. Auckland, July 29. In a reserved judgment which Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., delivered in the Magistrate’s Court, it was held that euchre tournaments are illegal. The Magistrate said that chance, not skill, was the predominant element in progressive euchre. The case was one in which J. Remington and J. Lomax were charged with keeping a common gaming house at the Masonic Hall, Devonport. The evidence at the hearing of the case was that the defendants ran a weekly euchre tournament iu the hall. In his judgment the Magistrate stated that iu most games of cards there existed a substantially operative element of skill, and quoted whist as. an example. It, had been held in an English case that whist play’ed under conditions almost similar to those of the euchre tournament was a game of chance, because the element of skill was slight, and that of chance predominated. The only distinction . between the cases was that the initial amount of skill required for euchre was possibly less than that required for whist. The element of chance was made greater by the fact that the winners might be players who had not finished their games when the bell had rung. There had been nothing in. the evidence to show that skill predominated at the tournaments. A sergeant.of■' police gave evidence that he had tried hard to win, but his efforts were nullified by changes of partners. The evidence showed that the defendants had made a business of tournaments by holding them regularly. This amounted to keeping a common gaming hoiise within the meaning- of the Act. The legislation was directed against ..those who for their own profit, and in the way of business, open premises for the put’pose of gaming. “It should be added," said the Magistrate, “that the tournaments have been conducted fairly and in an orderly manner.” In order to give Mr. Schramm, defendants’ counsel, an opportunity to consider the question of appeal, the penalties will not be imposed until Monday, and the convictions will be entered on that day.