LAW UNSATISFACTORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 28 June 1926, Page 3

LAW UNSATISFACTORY

REGARDING CERTAIN, GAMES (United Press Association., AUCKLAND, Juno 25. ' R seems 1.0 mo Hint the games have just «}.?! ()('>',;>,>■ skill (hat takes them i,i!t of the - Art." said Mi’ ,1. W. Povntrm, S.M., in tin- Magistrates Court to dav. wlnui lio dismissed charges brought l>v the police against Maurice Darling, Frank <le Lynll, and James McCorkin-

dale, showmen, who bad stalls at the Winter Shown The three men were charged with playing in a public place a game of chance known as “box ball.” McCorkindale being further charged with playing “ski-alley,” another game of chance. The defence was that the games were of skill and not of chance. After describing in detail the manner in which the games were played, the Magistrate continued: “The law as to such games is an unsatisfactory one. A lot of decisions rule that any game with skill in it, however small, is not a game of chance, aiid another equally wegihty one is that even if there is skill in the game, if the element of chance enters largely into it, it is not a game of skill. In both these games the skill to be possibly acquired is small. A tall man with long arms playing box ball may reach to within a few inches of the

edges of the holes, and with a little practice should he able to drop the ball into any desired pocket, while a short, person or a child is at a serious disadvantage in this respect. His eyes, too, being low, lie would have a difficulty in seeing the numbers of the pockets. In ski-alley there’is also very little skill.* At. the top of the, tnblej where the hall drops over the edge of the incline into the pockets, the green Baize is thicker than on the other parts of the table, and this tends to force the ball back. In such a. case another throw of a ball is granted. A skilled player would piny with just sufficient force to send the ball over the edge, and with practice would acquire a certain skill in placing the halls into selected holes, hut not much. Tf the law is to he altered, and it certainly should he in the interests of our children, the rest ought to he not as at present: Ms there any skill in the game if played by practised players,’ hut ‘is it a game of chance to those who indulge in it and from whose pockets tile funds are extracted to keep it going?’ ”

The Magistrate concluded with , the Words of Mr Justice Edwards regarding a case which he tried: “It is a species of amusement designed to'extract small sums of money from the pockets of the foolish, principally the young and foolish. who are visitors to racecourses and other places of public amusement. It does move than empty their pockets; it inoculates such foolish persons and children t ith tne fever of gambling, a vice already too prevalent in the community.”